A man has been jailed after claiming he was raising funds for charity while actually collecting cash to help a British jihadi travel to Syria.

Adeel Ul-Haq, 21, from Nottinghamshire was sentenced to five years for helping in the preparation of an act of terrorism and another year for funding terrorism. He was jailed alongside two other men following an Old Bailey trial.

Ul-Haq had helped another man travel to Syria to fight as a jihadi. He used Twitter to ask for charitable donations in support of ‘humanitarian aid convoys’ and other aid efforts to assist those affected by the Syria Crisis, but planned to spend the money on helping jihadis.

The Charity Commission was told of Ul-Haq’s activities by the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, opened an inquiry, and froze Ul-Haq’s bank accounts in April 2014.

On 21 July 2014 the Commission directed the bank in which the funds were held to transfer them to another charity to apply to assist those affected by the Syria Crisis. It also disqualified Ul-Haq from acting as a charity trustee in the future.

Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: “We are pleased with today’s verdict and that the commission has been able to protect funds donated by the public to assist those affected by the Syria Crisis.

“If you raise funds for humanitarian work or other charitable purposes, you assume the role and responsibilities of a trustee over those funds and are accountable for their proper use, even if you have not registered as a charity or you are not acting on behalf of one. Our investigation shows that individuals will not get away with abusing charitable funds.”