Dan Houston set up Scotia Aid Sierra Leone (Andrew Cawley/ Sunday Post)

SCOTLAND’s charity regulator has been blasted for failing to investigate a controversial charity exposed by The Sunday Post quickly enough.

Scotia Aid Sierra Leone claimed to help street children in the impoverished African country.

But it has faced allegations trustees exploited a business rates loophole to line their own pockets.

On Tuesday OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator, announced it had suspended the assets of the South Lanarkshire-based organisation.

However, whistleblowers who tried to raise concerns about alleged large-scale financial misconduct at the charity say it’s a case of too little too late.

Former trustee Jackie Douglas said: “This should have happened some time ago.

“It’s been going on far too long.

“I raised many of the points highlighted in the report four years ago and yet nothing happened.

“I wonder what good this action will actually do. Will anyone be held to account for what’s happened?”

Last year a Sunday Post investigation revealed a series of startling claims about the mercy body. It was alleged the charity was only being used to provide three trustees with a comfortable lifestyle – and a six-figure salary each.

It was also claimed the organisation exploited a business rates loophole to make more than £1 million a year.

Just a fraction of that income, which cost the UK taxpayers millions of pounds in lost revenue, was passed to the needy in Sierra Leone.

At the time, officials at OSCR refused to say whether it would probe the allegations.

That was despite the watchdog receiving official complaints dating back years.

Former Cardinal Keith O’Brien – an ex-patron of the charity – raised concerns about Scotia Aid as far back as 2011.

In April, when it emerged OSCR had started an investigation, former trustee Bobby Florence said: “It’s a joke it has taken OSCR this long to start investigating.

“It sent sheriff officers around to my house like a common criminal armed with a copy of The Sunday Post.

“All the facts set out in the story were exactly the same points I raised with OSCR years ago.

“OSCR did nothing then and only seem to have begun a probe after it appeared in the national press.”

Scotia Aid was founded in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, by chairman Dan Houston, 62, in 2010.

It has now had its bank account frozen, its two trustees have been suspended from controlling the charity and an interdict has been granted preventing it from selling or leasing any of its property.

The Court of Session granted the measures and approved the appointment of an interim judicial factor to manage the charity’s affairs.

OSCR’s head of enforcement, Laura Anderson, said that action was necessary to protect the charity’s assets and reinforce public confidence.

However, Annie Wells, Scottish Conservative MSP, questioned why it had taken so long for OSCR to act.

She said: “The Sunday Post is to be congratulated for bringing this case to light but it is deeply worrying that it has taken so long for the matter to be raised.”

OSCR defended its handling of the probe.

A spokesman said: “We handle complex, sensitive and high-risk cases and these require detailed and careful consideration.

“This will naturally take time but allows us to ensure that we achieve the required result, as we have seen in this case.”

Scotia Aid was unavailable for comment.

Background

A SUNDAY POST investigation team first revealed the true extent of the alleged financial mismanagement at the heart of Scotia Aid in August last year.

Our extensive probe detailed how the charity raised more than £1 million in 2014, but handed over just £137,000 to good causes, the equivalent of 13p in every £1 raised.

Two months later we revealed Scotia Aid was being investigated by a number of councils across the UK amid claims of a cash raising scam.

One of those, Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire, raised civil court proceedings against the charity to recover £369,000.

In April this year it emerged OSCR had finally instructed Sheriff Officers to quiz former trustees of the organisation.

The Sunday Post has been praised by Labour MSP Michael McMahon, whose constituency takes in Scotia Aid’s base in Uddingston.

“The Sunday Post is to be congratulated,” he said.

Councils cut ties with scandal-hit Scotia Aid charity