Charity inquiry over £900k loan to trustee's son

A regulator says it is investigating a charity over a £900,000 loan to a trustee's family member.

The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the Allen Trust, based in Surrey, to "examine the extent to which the trustees are complying with their legal duties".

According to the charity's annual report, the Allen Trust exists "for the relief of persons anywhere in the world who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress".

The charity said trustees were "committed to acting at all times in the best interests of the important charitable mission which the Allen Trust is set up to serve".

Trustees were "seeking to ensure the least possible disruption to the charity's valuable work during the course of the ongoing inquiry", it said.

According to a spokesperson, the Allen Trust "will continue to cooperate fully with the Charity Commission".

The Charity Commission said it began "engaging with the charity" after accounts for 2023-24 showed it was owed more than £900,000 by a trustee's family member.

The loan was made in April 2018 and extended three years later for a further five years, according to the regulator.

It said: "It is not clear that the decision to make this loan, or extend its terms, was in the best interests of the charity."

"Other serious financial concerns" later came to light, the Charity Commission said, "including evidence of other possible private trustee benefits" and conflicts of interest.

According to its most recent accounts, the Allen Trust donated £256,000 between April 2024 and March 2025.

African Revival, a charity with the stated aim of working with primary and nursery schools in Uganda and South Sudan, received most of this funding.

Organisations operating elsewhere in Africa, in Ukraine and in the UK received smaller sums, including an opera company, a Surrey parish church and a public school's rugby team.

The accounts said the son of trustee Tony Allen owed £907,632 to the charity in March 2025.

The Charity Commission said its inquiry, opened in January, will examine the financial management of the charity, any unauthorised private benefit to the trustees, and decision making over unsecured loans.

A report would be published detailing the inquiry's outcomes, according to the regulator.

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