Lauren Booth, half-sister of Cherie Blair, has been disqualified from being a trustee after her Islamic charity Peacetrail was dissolved by the Charity Commission.
An inquiry report by the Commission published today says Booth and fellow trustee Nadeem Ahmed failed to account for at least £92,110, nearly 50 per cent of the charity’s total expenditure.
The Commission’s investigation into Peacetrail concluded that its two trustees had been responsible for “misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity throughout their periods of trusteeship”.
It says Booth and Ahmed failed “to fulfil their basic legal duties”, including “obtaining evidence of end use of charitable funds and failing to file the charity’s statutory returns within the statutory timeframe”.
Both Booth and Ahmed are now disqualified from acting as trustee of any other charity unless they obtain a waiver from the Commission or the courts.
The Commission says the trustees had a lack of oversight over the charity’s chief executive, Sohale Ahmed, Booth’s husband, who was disqualified on 18 January.
Misconduct and/or mismanagement
The inquiry found that Sohale Ahmed was responsible for “misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity” as he failed to ensure proper financial controls were in place and to address governance issues when the two trustees had attempted to resign.
Sohale Ahmed is disqualified from being a charity trustee or holding a senior management position within a charity for 4 years and 6 months.
Booth resigned from her position in September 2014 and Nadeem Ahmed did so in January 2016, but the Commission ruled in its inquiry that both resignations were not effective as they would have left the charity with fewer than its minimum two trustees.
Charity dissolved
Michelle Russell, the Commission’s director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement, said: “The trustees of Peacetrail clearly failed to discharge their legal duties which is why we exercised our powers to remove them.
“Charity trustees have an important legal duty to ensure that their charity’s funds are spent on the charity’s objects.
“This includes keeping clear accounting records that can evidence exactly where charity money has gone. Transparent reporting in this way is vital for maintaining public trust and confidence in charities.”
The charity was set up in 2013 with the aim of advancing the Islamic faith and supporting women and children facing financial hardship in the UK, Palestine and Pakistan.
But it was subject to a monitoring visit by the regulator in 2016 after failing to file any accounts, and was subsequently investigated.
The Commission dissolved the charity and removed it from the register on 31 October 2017.
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