Whistleblowing model fired for revealing £300,000 'theft' from jail charity

A prison counsellor was unfairly dismissed by a charity after blowing the whistle on the alleged theft of over £300,000 of public funds, a tribunal has ruled. Oxford University graduate Robina Husain-Naviatti, 38, was awarded £47,580 in compensation and the Charity Commission is now set to probe her claims of embezzlement. She was deputy director of Forensic Therapies, a central London-based charity providing counselling services in British jails.

Miss Husain-Naviatti, who is also a model, visited inmates at jails including London’s Holloway, Pentonville and Wandsworth prisons.

In 2008, Miss Husain-Naviatti alerted trustees that a £535,000 Cabinet Office grant had only been recorded as £240,000 in a business plan. The charity’s director Steve Morris had allegedly previously falsified cheques, the tribunal heard. She also alleged that the Cabinet Office and another charity had each unwittingly funded her £35,000 salary - with one of the sums siphoned off. And she claimed that Mr Morris’ entire salary was also being paid several times over by different funding bodies.

But after blowing the whistle on a string of alleged financial discrepancies, Miss Husain-Naviatti was suspended and then axed in a sham redundancy.

A panel at Watford Employment Tribunal found that she was unfairly dismissed. It awarded her £48,580 for lost earnings and injury to feelings and recommended that the Charity Commission mount a full investigation of her claims.

Miss Husain-Naviatti, a law graduate of Jesus College, Oxford, lives in Westminster, central London and now works as a photographic artist and model.

Speaking after the judgment, Miss Husain Naviatti said: ‘I was victimised, harassed and ultimately lost my livelihood for daring to raise serious concerns about the potential misuse of public funds with no benefit to myself. ‘I was only ever concerned about the truth. ‘I suffered immense stress and trauma through the process culminating in the loss of my job.

‘The circumstances, in which my dismissal happened, together with the events preceding it, have had a profound effect on my state of emotional and physical health. I have suffered severe depression.

‘I feel that this judgment goes some way to achieving justice and I hope that the Charity Commission takes heed of the tribunal’s comments about investigating this further.’

Her solicitor Shah Qureshi, of law firm Bindmans, said: ‘This judgment sends a signal to charities that they are in a position of trust and must act with propriety at all times. ‘Whistleblowers who dare to raise their heads above the parapet are a vital check against complacency and cover-ups and the law recognises they need protection.

‘My client suffered horrendously for raising her concerns in good faith. ‘Clearly, there are serious questions about what has happened to the balance of funding and why the charity quoted different figures in a variety of documents.

‘It is incumbent upon the Charity Commission, as recommended by the tribunal, to ensure that a full and thorough investigation is carried out.’

Trained psychotherapist and mediator Miss Husain-Naviatti joined the charity as a volunteer counsellor in November 2005. After promotion, her £35,000-a-year role as deputy director was to manage the organisation’s services at Holloway and Brixton prisons.

Her boss Steve Morris announced in June 2007 that £535,000 had been awarded by the Cabinet Office over three years to develop a pilot service aimed at those with borderline personality disorder at Holloway. But in internal documents the following year, the grant was stated to be £375,000 and a year later £240,000.

When she confronted Mr Morris, he allegedly said he could not remember how much the Cabinet Office had pledged. She did not believe him as it was the biggest funding amount the charity had ever received and he had spoken about it regularly. She claimed at the tribunal: ‘It is my reasonable belief that funds were being misapplied and fraud was taking place.

‘I found Steve’s forgetfulness implausible. I was aware that Steve had offended before. He received a ‘caution’ for falsifying cheques some years previously.’

Miss Husain-Naviatti also raised concerns that the Cabinet Office and charity the Southall Trust were each paying salary, thinking she was working full-time on projects for them. She said: ‘This suggested that my salary may have been duplicated and a whole salary’s worth siphoned off or otherwise misapplied.’

But when Miss Husain-Naviatti raised her concerns of possible embezzlement with two of the charity’s trustees, Michael Linsell and David Moffat, they were ‘hostile’. She said: ‘I was prevented from discussing my concerns in depth. Mick feigned total ignorance as to what I was talking about.’

After raising a formal grievance, Miss Husain-Naviatti was suspended in December 2008.

She alerted the Charity Commission to the possible fraud in April 2009 and was dismissed two months later in a sham redundancy.

The tribunal found that the real reason for her suspension and dismissal was the allegations of financial impropriety.

The Charity Commission’s review panel has also recommended an investigation.

But Miss Husain-Naviatti faces a fight to get her compensation award after the charity’s trustees put it into liquidation shortly before the case began.

Original report here




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