Addiction charity probed amid ‘serious regulatory concerns’

An inquiry has been opened into the management of a drug and alcohol addiction support charity that filed its accounts late for two years in a row.

The inquiry has been opened by the Charity Commission into the running of London based Wineskins Charitable Trust, which operates under the name U-Turn Recovery Project, after it failed to submit its accounts for the year’s ending March 2020 and 2021.

This has been launched “as a result of serious regulatory concerns regarding the charity’s failure to submit its accounts”, said the regulator.

The charity has since filed the returns amid the regulator’s double defaulter class action, but this probe found that “the accounts did not meet all the accounting requirements”.

It then filed its accounts for the following year, ending March 2022, 140 days late. These accounts show the charity’s total income for the year was £246,569 and its spending was £245,589.

We've opened a statutory inquiry into New Wineskins Charitable Trust, as a result of serious regulatory concerns regarding the charity’s failure to submit its accounts and annual reports.

Read more: https://t.co/qHUTBj11iJ pic.twitter.com/KuPF5ewSpY
— Charity Commission (@ChtyCommission) July 3, 2023

It has three trustees and three volunteers, according to its latest return.

The Commission’s inquiry will look at whether trustees have complied with their legal duties in managing the charity and whether there are any failures in the charity’s administration were due to either misconduct or mismanagement.