More charities than first thought may be implicated in the alleged attempt to defraud the Big Lottery Fund (BLF), according to the Charity Commission.

Around 30 charities had their bank accounts frozen over the weekend after a three month investigation by the commission. The regulator has today indicated this figure may rise.

“We were alerted by the BLF on 16 September about the possibility of fraudulent applications for grants from the Community Fund,” said a spokesperson for the commission, who added that more accounts may be frozen as part of the investigation.

According to the BLF, over £1m is suspected to have been granted to charities that now “appear to be bogus”. The irregularities were discovered by its internal auditors. “We do have a rigorous monitoring system when considering applications but these particular grants appear to have slipped through the net”, said a spokesperson for the distributor.

So far no details have been confirmed as to exactly who is responsible or which charities are being investigated, although the Charity Commission has said that the organisations are “generally small community groups based in urban areas”. Reports have suggested that other funding bodies, including Comic Relief, may also be victims and that the fraud is the work of gangs posing as representatives of Congolese refugees. Nine men have been arrested in connection with the claims. Eight have since been bailed, while the remaining man is currently being questioned by the immigration services.

On the 20 September, the commission and the BLF signed a Memorandum of Understanding designed to help prevent the misuse of grants from occurring.