Regulator launches inquiry into Middlesbrough mosque after repeated failure to meet financial and legal duties

Image by Middlesbrough Central Masjid

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into the Middlesbrough Central Masjid and Community Centre after the charity repeatedly failed to provide financial accounts.

The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.

When a charity secures an annual income of over £25,000, trustees must arrange for an independent person or accountancy firm to review their charity’s accounts. Evidence of this must be submitted in the charity’s Trustees Annual Report.

The Middlesbrough Central Masjid and Community Centre was set up to provide a place of worship, religious education and community services for the benefit of the local community in Middlesbrough.

In December 2019, the regulator placed the charity into a double defaulter class inquiry in which charities in default of their legal duty to file their annual reports, accounts, and returns for two or more years are investigated. This prompted the charity to submit its annual return and accounts for financial year ending (FYE) 2019 which were overdue by 180 days. The charity also submitted an incomplete Trustees Annual Report (TAR) for FYE 2019.

Despite already being subject to a double defaulter class inquiry, the charity again failed to submit annual returns and accounts for FYE in 2020 and 2021 to the Charity Commission. It is a legal requirement for a charity to submit their required documents no later than 10 months after the end of their financial year end.

The inquiry, which opened on the 13th December 2022, will examine:

• The extent to which the trustees have and are complying with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance, and management of the charity. This includes management of the charity’s finances, and whether the charity is operating in line with its objects.
•  The extent to which any failing or weaknesses in the administration, governance and management of the charity identified during the inquiry were the result of misconduct and/or mismanagement by the trustees.

The Commission may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge.

It is the Commission’s policy to publish a report upon concluding an inquiry to detail its findings, conclusions, and any regulatory action taken.