Suspected £460k fraud at Age UK Gloucestershire

"I'm incredibly sad and disappointed that this has occurred," Mr Fellows said

A charity is investigating after trustees discovered fraudulent losses of almost £460,000.

Age UK Gloucestershire has reported a "sizeable systemic fraud" over a number of years, dating back to 2016.

Chief Executive Matt Fellows said: "With this money we would have been able to do so much more."

Gloucestershire Constabulary confirmed it had received a report from Age UK of suspected fraudulent activity.

An employee has been interviewed under caution in relation to the allegations and the investigation is ongoing, the force added.

Mr Fellows said the organisation discovered the fraud in July 2023, when a finance manager discovered a payment on their accounts that did not match the budget.

An employee has been interviewed under caution in relation to the allegations

They launched an internal investigation, which found further fraudulent payments.

"I'm incredibly sad and disappointed that this has occurred - for a variety of reasons," Mr Fellows said.

"With this money we would have been able to do so much more and achieve so much more.

"We're talking about 5-6% of our annual income so we would have been able to do 5-6% more. That funding would have been huge.

"We're really worried about the future - we rely on individual donors.

"What we want to do is be really open and transparent about the fraud itself but also the response to it and making sure that it can't happen again."