The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into a charity that provides accommodation and support to older people in East Sussex, which has failed to file its accounts for the last four years.

The probe has been launched into The Queen Alexandra Cottage Homes after it was placed into the regulator’s double defaulter class inquiry last year. This relates to charities which have failed to file their annual financial information for two or more years in the last five.

“Despite the issuing of a formal order and continued assurances that the situation would be remedied in a timely manner, the charity has failed to submit any of the charity’s outstanding annual accounting information,” said the regulator.

“The Commission has therefore escalated its engagement to a separate inquiry.”

Being investigated is whether the charity’s trustees have complied with their legal duties, its financial management and whether there has been misconduct or mismanagement by trustees.

According to the charity register, the charity has supplied a late annual return for all years since 2019. But over this period no accounts have been submitted.

From latest information received, for the year ending March 2021, the charity’s total income was £2.1m while its spending was £2.3m.

It has 72 staff, three trustees and three volunteers, adds its entry in the charity register.

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