'Gross negligence' to blame for £11,000 stolen from Corby Nightlight

Money was taken using a bank card owned by the former trustee according to newly-released accounts
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A further £10,898 went missing last year from the donated funds of a high-profile Corby charity, newly-released documents have revealed.

Corby Nightlight has filed its latest accounts covering the 2018/19 financial year which show that there was 'misappropriation of significant levels of funds' as a result of the 'alleged theft of a bank card used by one of the charity's trustees'.

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During the period they cover, hundreds of people and businesses in Corby donated their time and money to the charity to helps its aim of opening a night shelter for the town's growing homeless population.

During the winter of 2018/19, Nightlight was run by Nicola Pell and was based in Corby's former police station.During the winter of 2018/19, Nightlight was run by Nicola Pell and was based in Corby's former police station.
During the winter of 2018/19, Nightlight was run by Nicola Pell and was based in Corby's former police station.

The documents, which were submitted to the Charity Commission 112 days overdue, partly cover the tenure of previous CEO Nicola Pell, who resigned in January of 2019 after a video-nasty obtained by this newspaper showed her repeatedly slapping a man in the face outside the Corby Candle.

The accounts run from April 2018 to April 2019 and come on top of the previous year's accounts (2017/18) which themselves showed £7k in spending which could not be backed-up by receipts.

They latest accounts show:

- £10,898 in cash and purchases using a bank card that had allegedly been stolen.

- A further £8,054 in expenses without any receipts

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- An eight-year contract set up for a 'sanitising device' with monthly payments of £186 taken out at a time that Nightlight had no permanent premises.

- New trustees appointed in June 2018 were denied access to the charity's bank account for the first six months of their tenure.

- Despite her claims to the contrary, Ms Pell failed to bid for funds that would have been put toward converting the Cannock Road shelter

The accounts state: "The new trustees were not added to the bank mandate or given access to the bank account until early December 2018. Until then the account was accessible only by the previous trustee who was also the guardian of the debit card.

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"Unfortunately, during the accounting period, the charity was the victim of a number of criminal acts. In addition, records were not maintained as required, leading to uncertainty over expenditure."

In the same year (2018/19), the Northants Telegraph has previously reported that £10,580 was stolen from the charity's bank account, but that cash was subsequently returned by the bank after it was shown to have been fraudulently taken|}. The man accused of stealing that cash, using a Nightlight bank card owned by Ms Pell, was James Bedford, who was found hanged in a Rotterdam extradition centre earlier this year.

Now it can be revealed that in September 2018, Ms Pell reported a burglary at her home address in Corby, telling police that £3,000 of the charity's money - donated to Nightlight by the people of Corby - had been taken.

The accounts state: "The storing of that money was contrary to the financial policy agreed in July (2018). The matter was reported to the police."

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It was at this same time that Nicola Pell persuaded Northants Police and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold to allow the charity to use the former accommodation block in the town's empty police station as their winter night shelter.

The documents explain that trustees were told in November 2018 that the bank account had been 'compromised' by the unauthorised use of the charity's bank card. It had been used on 'numerous occasions' to withdraw cash and make store purchases 'none of which had been for the benefit of the charity'. They were then told that an 'unauthorised third party' had sought to cash the cheque for £10,580, which was initially authorised but later refunded after an internal investigation by the bank.

Ms Pell resigned in January 2019.

The report continues: "The remaining trustees commenced the task of sorting and organising through the paperwork that had previously been kept from them, a significant amount of which was disordered and incomplete.

"Bringing clarity to this has been a long process that has involved the instruction of accountants and solicitors, along with meetings with the police. The process has progressed significantly but is yet to be completed."

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The charity's new trustees have also had to negotiate with JLA Total Care after the previous trustee took out an eight-year contract for a sanitiser device with monthly payments of £186 and no option to end the contract early. That negotiation ended with the cost being brought down significantly and the balance being cleared.

In September 2018, after a high-profile battle against dozens of objections from people living nearby, the charity gained planning permission for a new, permanent shelter in Cannock Road. But in that permission was a clause that guests would not be allowed to stay in the shelter again for six months after they had moved on.

The trustees felt this clause was unacceptable and Ms Pell was tasked with submitting a formal objection and negotiating a new clause. She was also in charge of liaising with a bid writer to try to secure funding to convert the building on top of £20,000 that had already been secured.

The report continues: "As the trustees processed the paperwork that had been handed over to them in January 2019, it became apparent that no funding applications had been made nor had a formal objection been lodged regarding the planning condition.

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"While the charity had been successful in obtaining awards totalling £20,000 in 2017, the funds were insufficient to cover the expected renovation costs. Ultimately the decision was taken that the building could not be taken. In due course £10,000 was returned to the National Lottery as we were no longer in a position of being able to use the funds for the expected purpose."

An independent examiner from Moore Chartered Accountants states: "During the course of our examination of the charity’s records and supporting documents we discovered that the charity has suffered misappropriation of significant levels of funds during the year as a result of the alleged theft of a bank card used by one of the charity’s trustees.

"Investigations by the charity’s bank, CAF, resulted in their conclusion that there had been gross negligence on the part of the particular trustee concerned in terms of safeguarding the charity’s assets and in their response to dealing with the investigation that followed the reporting of the lost card.

"The transactions that were made during the period when the card was allegedly stolen either comprised of unauthorised cash withdrawals or payments to businesses which have been itemised as unsubstantiated by the remainder of the charity’s trustee body.

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"The total value of these items in the accounts stands at £10,898. Additionally, the accounts include £8,054 of expenses for which a receipt has not been provided. The expenses have been categorised according to charity's records, many of which could be for a legitimate charity expense; but without seeing the receipts no confirmation can be provided."

The accounts show that Nightlight received charitable donations of £51,912 in 2017/18, and £28,238 in 2018/19.

A Charity Commission investigation has been concluded with no further action required by the current trustees.

When approached by the Northants Telegraph for comment, Diane Boyd, current chair of Nightlight said that since the year 2018/19, significant strides had been made by the new trustees to restore the reputation of the charity.

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She added: "When the accounts for 2019/20 come out, they will show a wholly different picture and will reflect the work that the current trustees have put in to bring the charity back to where it should be."

A police investigation is continuing and a spokesman for Northamptonshire Police said this week: "This is still very much an active investigation that is being progressed. There are still actions to progress and lines of enquiry to follow up."

NIGHTLIGHT TIMELINE:

June 2018 - New trustees are appointed at Nightlight following concerns raised in Corby. They are not given access to the charity's bank account.

September 2018 - Nightlight granted planning permission for Cannock Road but a clause means guests are only allowed to stay for a limited period, and can't return within six months.

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September 2018 - £3,000 belonging to Nightlight is allegedly stolen from Ms Pell's home address in Corby.

November 2018 - Trustees told that someone had been using Ms Pell's bank card linked to the charity for numerous unauthorised cash withdrawals and purchases.

November 2018 - Trustees told that an unauthorised cheque for £10,580 had been written. All the money was later returned to Nightlight by the bank.

December 2018 - Access to the charity's bank account is finally gained by the trustees. They find it to be 'disordered and incomplete'.

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December 2018 - The charity begins to discover that no building funds have been applied for, and an objection to the planning permission clauses has not been submitted.

January 2019 - Nicola Pell resigns after a video of her assaulting a man outside the Corby Candle emerges.

August 2019 - Accounts for 2017/18 are released showing nearly £7,000 of expenses with no receipts to justify why they had been paid out.

March 2020 - James Bedford - one of the people accused of stealing charity funds - is due in court to face driving charges, but the Northants Telegraph discovers he has died in a Rotterdam detention centre awaiting extradition on a separate matter.

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August 2020 - The Nightlight accounts for 2018/19 are released showing a missing £10,898, a further £8,054 in unsubstantiated expenses and 'gross negligence' on the part of the trustee in charge, according to the bank. Police confirm their investigation is ongoing.