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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.

Volunteers mutiny at controversial veterans charity

This news post is almost 5 years old
 

Allegations of financial mismanagement and links to far right groups have been stalking the organisation for years

A Scottish veterans charity is facing a mutiny over claims of financial mismanagement.

Soldiers Off the Streets Scotland has been embroiled in a spat with its head office in Wales over a project to house ex-servicemen in Irvine.

Volunteers integral to the running of the charity are thought to have walked out of the organisation in contempt at the way it is being run.

A source said: “The team in Scotland won a competition and got a grant of £4,000 last November but the head office down south declined the grant.

“Head office had decreed we don’t take grants as they did not want anyone outside scrutinising their accounts.

“They didn’t want to declare that members of Soldiers Off the Streets, including the chairman, had been arrested and investigated for fraud.

“We had no confidence that head office was being run with integrity.”

In 2016 three directors linked to the charity were arrested on suspicion of fraud in and remain under investigation.

The charity has also been linked to far right groups including the BNP.

The English branch of the charity was set up by Hugh William “Bill” Murray, the BNP’s former secretary for Wales, once a close associate of the party’s former leader, Nick Griffin.

Soldiers Off the Streets secretary Marie Murray said: “This is spite from unofficial volunteers who demanded that we sign away the rights to the logo and the charity name in Scotland.

“We have been denied access and keys to the housing in Irvine but we have not stripped it.

“We homed six people in Scotland recently, so we are still going strong.”

In its mission statement, it says it provides “clothing, food and rehabilitation, including advice on post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, drug abuse, housing and employment.”