A COLLAPSED racial equality organisation failed to submit vital documents to the Charity Commission.

The Examiner can reveal that Kirklees Racial Equality Council (KREC) was yesterday 250 days late in filing its Annual Return to the Charity Commission – and KREC, which became KEHRA (Kirklees Equality and Human Rights Agency) in July, had £128,794 in its coffers 18 months before it folded citing financial difficulties.

On an Annual Return a charity is required to disclose its income and spending together with details of its trustees and remit.

The Annual Return also includes a notice requiring that trustees immediately report any "serious incident" to the Charity Commission. Such incidents include frauds and failing to vet trustees and staff to ensure they are eligible for their positions.

Kirklees Council, which gave KREC £107,000 last year and £105,836 in 2006, decided to suspend its funding for the organisation in April.

Among its grants last year, KREC received £35,000 from Kirklees Community Safety Partnership, £32,415 from the Big Lottery and £16,825 from the Commission for Racial Equality as well as £35,000 from charities including The Prince’s Trust and Joseph Rowntree Trust.

A spokeswoman for the Charities Commission said: "The Commission has the most robust regime it has ever had to tackle charities that are not filing their accounts on time.

"All charities are reminded of their reporting requirements as their filing deadline approaches and if they miss their deadline they receive a default notice. A further series of reminders, some of which are issued to all charity trustees, are sent at intervals during the next 12 months. These explain that if overdue documents are not filed, the charity could face removal from the register.

"At the end of the 12 month period after their deadline, if we have not received the overdue documents, we will either remove the charity from the Register for failing to supply evidence of its continued operation, or they will face enforcement action."

"If they are still operating we will work with them to ensure they supply their documents."

KEHRA’s former chief executive Carl Hayes was quizzed by police on October 2 and has been bailed pending further inquiries.