A man from Stratford, east London, has been jailed after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently collecting money for charity.
Mohammed Nazmul Alam, 36, pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court last Monday and was sentenced the same day to three years in jail.
His accountant and co-defendent Mohammed Mohsin, 60, from Ilford, pleaded guilty to supplying false or misleading information to the Charity Commission.
The court heard how Alam stole £167,000 over the course of four years when he was a trustee of the Non Alliance Social Aid Foundation, which no longer exists.
Mohsin, who was given a nine month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, sent fraudulent annual reports to the Charity Commission.
They were caught last year after British Transport Police officers noticed that the charity had been collecting extensively but their declared accounts on the Charity Commission website did not look correct.
Inspector Dan Tanner said: “Alam arranged collections on the railway network then diverted the funds to his own account and a fake Indian restaurant company which he set up.
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“Mohsin was a qualified accountant with a large business in east London. By repeatedly signing off the annual charity accounts as correct, he allowed this fraud to occur and for Alam to steal the donations. He now faces being struck off by his professional body.”
Tracy Howarth, head of regulatory compliance at the Charity Commission, added: “The deliberate criminal abuse of charities in this way is appalling and as this case shows, will not be tolerated.”
The Charity Commission has since removed the Non Alliance Social Aid Foundation from the charity register.
