A trustee of an animal rights charity has been permanently disqualified, a Charity Commission inquiry report said.

The inquiry report into Action Aid for Animals was published yesterday. It said Kendra Pinder, a former trustee of Action Aid for Animals, transferred £63,000 to an organisation called Ticket to Freedom, and encouraged donors to direct funds to it, claiming that there had been thefts from Action Aid for Animal's accounts.

While she said Ticket to Freedom was an “independent subsidiary” for rescue dogs, the Commission found that the funds were linked to Pinder’s personal bank account and that she had sole control of it.

The report said it did not know how the £63,000 had been spent. “Whilst it is likely that the charity’s money which was transferred to Ticket to Freedom has been spent on rescuing dogs from abroad, the inquiry was unable to verify that those funds had been spent in furtherance of the charity’s objects,” it said.

Pinder said that the Commission did not contact her to find out how the money was spent.

A statutory inquiry was opened in 2016 after Pinder admitted that there was no audit trail of how charitable funds had been spent overseas, only photos on social media displaying the charity’s work. The charity’s bank accounts were also frozen by the Commission.

Prior to this, the Commission had conducted nine compliance cases into the charity between 2012 and 2016, due to the charity’s repeated failure to submit its annual accounts, not updating records about the number of trustees on the charity’s board and cancelling meetings with the Commission to address these concerns.

Pinder has previously said that the charity lacked time to maintain annual accounts. She said: “It has been a choice between saving animals' lives or sitting down to do paperwork.”

The inquiry report said that Pinder “should not have been involved in decisions relating to Ticket to Freedom and the charity”. It added that the other two trustees of the charity should have aware of what Pinder was doing and “failed to manage the conflict of interest prudently which placed the charity’s funds at risk”.

The report said that Pinder had been acting as a trustee while disqualified and that she was now permanently disqualified.

'Let the public down'

Amy Spiller, head of investigations team at the Charity Commission, said: “Trustees have a responsibility to carefully steward funds in the best interests of their charity to maximise their positive impact on society. Knowing how and where money is being spent, especially when funding comes from generous donations from the public, is clearly a necessity for charities.

“Action Aid for Animals let the public down by failing to take sufficient control of their charity’s money. It’s right that we have removed a trustee responsible for this failure.”

The inquiry also found that there was “serious mismanagement in finance and governance” because there was a high turnover of trustees and no dedicated role for managing the finances or administration of the charity. The Commission added that there was “a persistent failure to file accounts” and said that trustees did not keep formal minutes of their meetings.

Action Aid for Animals was founded in 2010 to protect animals in Romania. It had income of £97,500 for the year ending 5 July 2017. The two remaining trustees intend to continue the charity’s work, however at the time of writing, the charity’s website has been removed, though it remains active on social media.

Spiller added: “Since the Commission’s intervention the remaining trustees have undertaken measures to improve their control of the charity. We expect the charity to continue to undertake their responsibilities with care.”

Editor's note: 19 February 2020

The headline and main article have been amended to avoid the inference that Pinder personally benefited from the funds, clarify the timeline relating to Pinder's disqualification and include additional details.