The controversial founder of the defunct Kids Company charity yesterday begged to be spared the ‘stress’ of court proceedings.

Camila Batmanghelidjh asked a judge to help her avoid taking the blame for its financial meltdown.

Her solicitor told the High Court it would be a ‘blessing’ if she was let off, adding: ‘It would save time, cost and stress for her.’

Camila Batmanghelidjh (pictured) asked a judge to help her avoid taking the blame for its financial meltdown

Kids Company, which helped troubled children in south London, was given £42million of public money, including £3million sanctioned by David Cameron just days before its collapse in 2015.

But an inquiry found an ‘extraordinary catalogue of failures’ at the charity and now the Insolvency Service is trying to impose a six-year ban on Batmanghelidjh being a company director.

The charity’s former chairman Alan Yentob, an ex-BBC executive, and six others also face three-year bans.

At a preliminary court hearing yesterday, Batmanghelidjh argued she should escape blame because although she was ‘heavily involved’ in the charity, she was ‘not involved in the governance’.

Her solicitor, James Nicholls, complained that ‘stones are being thrown at her by the official receiver’, who has amassed 56 lever arch files of evidence, which he described as ‘a plethora of noise’.

Although Batmanghelidjh was not a director at the time the charity collapsed, she was described at a previous inquiry as the ‘unaccountable and dominant’ chief executive who regarded Kids Company as ‘her personal fiefdom’.

The Insolvency Service is arguing that she was a ‘de facto director’, and should be banned.

Her solicitor asked for a separate hearing to decide whether she could be excused from the case.

But Gareth Tilley, for the official receiver, said it would be better if all eight defendants faced trial at the same time so that the court could get ‘the full picture’.

He said it was not yet known whether Batmanghelidjh and the board directors might blame each other for the collapse, to which Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Middleton replied: ‘It does have the “cut-throat” feel about it doesn’t it?’

Kids Company, which helped troubled children in south London, was given £42million of public money, including £3million sanctioned by David Cameron just days before its collapse in 2015

He threw out Batmanghelidjh’s application and rejected her request to be given longer than her co-defendents to file her defence, so she could see what they said.

‘She wants to see the other directors’ evidence before she puts pen to paper? Your client just has to say the truth,’ he told her.

Who is Camila Batmanghelidjh? Batmanghelidjh, 56, was born in Iran in 1963. After arriving in the UK, she studied at Sherborne School for Girls, an independent school in Dorset, before gaining a first class degree in Theatre and the Dramatic Arts from the University of Warwick. She formed The Kids Company in 1996, which provided care to children whose lives had been disrupted by poverty. Batmanghelidjh regularly appeared in the media, and in 2013 was named among Radio 4's 100 most powerful women of the year. Kids Company went into financial difficulties in 2015 and closed its operations on August 5, prompting an immediate outcry. On 5 August 2015, Kids Company closed its operations. It has since been renamed Keeping Kids Company. Advertisement

Kids Company received millions of pounds in taxpayer funding and was backed by high-profile celebrities.

Inquiries have previously found the charity gave brown envelopes stuffed with cash to troubled children as a matter of course.

Some £50,000 was allegedly spent on taxis at the charity’s Christmas party, and Batmanghelidjh had the use of a driver.

Twelve-year-old clients were given £150 trainers, while others were flown first class to America.

In 2015, one of the youngsters helped by the organisation told how she and her friends would splash the spending money they were given on cannabis.

She told Radio 4's The Report: 'We would queue up and sign our names down and get an envelope with £30 and an Oyster travelcard.

'Then we would go to the shop and buy whatever we wanted with that money. It was weed heaven on a Friday, you could smell it coming down from the landings.'

Other alleged instances of waste included someone's PhD studies being funded, and a stay at Champneys spa for a man with mental health problems who booked a chocolate massage treatment.

Batmanghelidjh denies all the allegations against her. The case continues.