The inquiry into The Everlasting Arms Ministries, a charity set up to advance Christian teachings and alleviate poverty, found that after a property sale the charity increased its expenditure without proper oversight or budgeting.

In 2016 the charity sold its main asset, a property on the Old Kent Road for £8m and agreed with a developer that it would continue to use the site for its own purposes until it was redeveloped. Due to a complicated agreement over the sale, the purchaser retained £2m of the sale price as a holding payment until the site was developed but this was wrongly reported in the annual accounts.

Analysis of the charity’s bank statements during the compliance case revealed significant payments to trustees and connected people and companies. At the inspection insufficient evidence was provided in relation to these payments.