A former charity director has denied 25 charges relating to an alleged £1m Gift Aid fraud involving a defunct youth support charity.
Wendy Macbean, 60, from St Johnston, Lifford, is accused of committing the offences between October 2017 and May 2020, in the name of the Foyle Youth and Community Association in Derry, Northern Ireland.
Macbean appeared at Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry on Wednesday (5 June), where she pleaded not guilty to all charges relating to the alleged fraud, the court said.
She was charged with cheating public revenue law and defrauding HM Revenue & Customs between October 2017 and December 2018 by submitting false charity returns that claimed FYACA received £1,009,367 in donations, for which she claimed Gift Aid of £252,364.
The charity’s latest accounts say that it had an income of £91,769 in the year ending 30 June 2018.
Macbean has also denied nine counts of fraud by false representation and a further nine counts of transferring criminal property totalling £94,676 from the charity to her personal bank account.
She denied a further six counts of forgery in FYACA’s name, relating to alleged forged donation and sponsorship forms in the name of the charity.
The case has been adjourned until 26 June and Macbean has been released on continuing bail, the court said.
FYACA, which is no longer in operation, is subject to a statutory inquiry, launched in April 2021 by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, which the regulator has put on hold pending the outcome of the legal proceedings.
The regulator said: “As a proportionate regulator, and so as to ensure that the investigation is fair, the commission will not be making any further comment while the case remains open.”