The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has taken steps to recover £30,000 from a charity which has failed to complete the winding up process.
OSCR served a notice on 13 February telling Clydesdale Bank not to part with property it is holding on behalf of the charity without OSCR’s consent.
A final written warning has been sent to the trustees, which was served by sheriff officers, demanding the charity be wound up. If the trustees do not comply then the regulator will apply to the Court of Session to appoint a judicial factor who will transfer the funds to a charity with similar purposes.
In an inquiry report into the charity the OSCR said: “Efforts to ensure the proper wind up of the charity have reached a critical point and OSCR considers it appropriate to safeguard the charity’s assets, as a precautionary measure, while these efforts continue.”
The Candy Kids Appeal Trust was set up under a trust deed and recognised as a charity in 1997.
Its charitable objectives are: “The relief of poverty and the advancement of education by inter alia advising and assisting members of the community who are, or may be entitled to, be in receipt of state benefits to be aware of their entitlement to such benefits and to help such people with their claims wherever possible and to do all things as will properly attain the above purposes.”
Roughly translated, this means it was set up for the relief of poverty, and education of members of the community entitled to receive benefits on their rights to claim.
In 2007 a complaint was made against the charity alleging that its street collectors were misrepresenting the charity’s purposes to the public. OSCR established that the allegations were broadly correct as the trustees had no written guidance for the behaviour of collectors.
Additionally it decided that the name of the charity and logo, which was a teddy bear, were misleading and the charity was ordered to change its name.
Instead, in 2008 the trustees submitted an application to the regulator wind up the charity and transfer the funds to a similar charity however OSCR has been unable to contact the trustees.
