“[It] seems to me they make all these boasts about what they can do, but they certainly did not deliver in my situation,” she said.

Jill said she had been attacked in 2015, and a defendant was charged with assault, sexual assault, and attempted rape but was later found not guilty.

“My Police Sexual Offences Investigation Team case officer visited me that afternoon to tell me the verdict and to explain that bail conditions had ended,” she said. “She commiserated about the result but explained that even if these cases get to court, they only count on 50% success rate.”

Jill’s police case officer allowed her to keep her police-issued GPS rape alarm following the verdict, and put her in contact with NCDV to obtain an injunction.

Jill said she attempted to contact NCDV by phone and through online forms, but struggled to get any response. When she then chased for one, she was told NCDV was waiting on information from the police, but said the police said they had already supplied those details.

Eventually, Jill said, she received a form letter for her to fill in asking for a “McKenzie Friend” to go to court with her on the basis she would apply for a non-molestation injunction herself – she said this came 11 days after her first contact with NCDV, which promises its service allows anyone to apply for injunctions within 24 hours – with no other support.

“I was completely disillusioned with NCDV. So much for their boast that they can obtain an injunction in less than 24 hours,” she said.

“All this is in the context of being afraid for my safety and my distressed state – I just wanted to recover from the ordeal ­– plus not being familiar with injunctions. And the thought of going back into a court again made me so apprehensive. So NCDV's failure to live up to their promises exacerbated my situation … This is a man who threatened to kill me and I am still concerned that he may try to inflict revenge upon me.”

NCDV and referral fees

Jill told BuzzFeed News she felt NCDV had “dropped [her] like a hot potato” on learning she was not entitled to legal aid, which the organisation appears to use as a source of funding – but one that faces serious concerns from regulators, as it may breach solicitors’ codes of conduct.

Internal NCDV documents seen by BuzzFeed News reveal NCDV enters into “payment recovery agreements” with law firms under which it receives payments of £178.50 plus VAT for “non-legal assistance” to clients. If this is covering costs such as collecting statements or other necessary work for preparing a case, it is allowed under the strict rules covering how public money is used.

If, however, the payment is suspected to be a quid pro quo for passing work to the solicitors’ firm, it is prohibited by the solicitors’ code of conduct, which is governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

In a ruling earlier this year settled by agreement, the SRA found that a deal between NCDV and Duncan Lewis Solicitors violated the code of conduct.

“The firm entered into an arrangement with the National Centre for Domestic Violence ('NCDV') for the referral of clients seeking urgent legal assistance,” the ruling states. “The NCDV carried out preparatory work on the cases, such as obtaining the client's witness statement, before referring the client to the firm. The firm paid NCDV £170 plus VAT for each referral. The cases referred by NCDV all benefitted from public funding. …

“The firm did not tell the clients referred to them by NCDV that the firm had paid a fee for that referral.”

The ruling found that such practices broke two terms of the solicitors’ code of conduct, and “rebuked” the firm, fining it £2,000 plus costs of £1,350.

BuzzFeed News has seen an acknowledgement from the SRA confirming it was examining at least 19 more cases involving solicitors’ firms working with NCDV.

A spokesman for the SRA said it does not comment on any cases until a public ruling is available.

Documentation seen by BuzzFeed News suggested NCDV handled more than 7,000 cases in 2016, suggesting it could have received up to £1.25 million in fees from solicitors’ firms doing work with public money in that year alone. The company has said it had a caseload of around 10,000 a year in the past, leaving its potential income from publicly funded solicitors in excess of £5 million.

From charity to company

NCDV was established in 2006 as a registered charity and operated as one for five years, receiving national newspaper and television coverage and praise for its work from celebrities and serving police officers, some of whom it continued to list as “patrons and supporters” of its work until recently, when it removed the word "patrons" after being contacted by BuzzFeed News.

Its website operates under an org.uk web domain, traditionally used by not-for-profits, and some quotes and information on the site continue to refer to it as a charity.

However, documents obtained by BuzzFeed News through Companies House and the Freedom of Information Act show NCDV wound down its charity in 2011 and reincorporated as a limited company in 2012, operating under the same name.

NCDV’s final charity accounts, which were filed 18 months late and long after it had become a private company, made no mention of the charity winding down, but registered just £500 of income against £237,060 of spending. In the previous year the charity had run a surplus of more than £130,000. The document’s “plans for the future” section made no reference to it ceasing operation as a charity, despite being filed two years after it had ceased to operate.

The official articles of association of the new private company NCDV include no measures stating it is a social enterprise or that shareholders cannot receive a dividend or other form of profit. The company was initially owned by NCDV’s founder Steven Connor, but was transferred last year to its current director, Mark Groves.

NCDV’s website makes no mention of its transition from a charity to a private company, giving only its trading name and “registered number”, risking the impression to a casual visitor that the organisation is a charity.

BuzzFeed News asked a number of people who were listed as “patrons and supporters” whether they were aware NCDV had become a private company, and while some said they were aware of the change, several were not – and some were unaware they were listed on the website at all.

A spokeswoman for former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross, who is listed on the site, said: “He recalls supplying NCDV with a quote some years ago but has no role with them and is not a patron. So far as he could establish they were legitimate and used for referrals by police and other agencies."