Probe into shamed Scotia Aid charity costs taxpayers £60k

A scandal-hit aid charity exposed by the Sunday Post has hit the taxpayer with a further £60,000 bill.

The charity regulator, OSCR, has said it has spent tens of thousands of pounds on legal fees and accountancy costs in its ongoing investigation into Scotia Aid Sierra Leone.

The probe into Scotia Aid is now in its third year after our series of damning exposes in 2015 – the longest investigation it has ever had.

OSCR officials said the investigation would “continue as long as the public interest requires it.”

Meanwhile, the three former trustees who paid themselves a fortune to run the mercy body have walked away Scot-free.

Whistle-blower Jackie Douglas, a former Scotia Aid treasurer, said: “OSCR was aware of issues at Scotia Aid as far back as 2012 but did nothing.”

OSCR’s bill will far exceed the £60,000 it says it has so far paid out, as it fails to include staff costs.

The Dundee-based regulator says seven members of its team have been involved in the probe. It paid nearly £22,000 in “external” legal fees when it took two Scotia Aid trustees – convicted knife thug Kieran Kelly and former energy salesman Alan Johnston – to the Court of Sessions on two occasions in 2016 to get them removed.

The founder of the charity, Dan Houston, escaped any legal action because he quit as a trustee before OSCR launched its probe.

Fraud specialist accountancy firm Aver Chartered Accountants was paid over £39,000 to run Scotia Aid as a temporary factor in 2016. It was later made a permanent move before it was “discharged” as a factor in January.

Bobby Florence, who helped set up the charity in 2010, said: “I’m sure a lot of these costs could have been avoided had they done something when complaints were made.”

In 2015, we revealed how Scotia Aid was getting over £1 million every year in donations, mainly from property firms looking to reduce their business rates’ liabilities.

Houston, Kelly and Johnston all paid themselves well in excess of £100,000 to run the aid body.

But the charity was later declared bankrupt with debts of over £1m.

Dan Houston and Kieran Kelly could not be reached for comment.

Alan Johnston insisted the charity had been set up to help the poor in Sierra Leone.

An OSCR spokesman said it would foot court costs “in the public interest where the case justifies it”.