THE former Head of Operations in the Two Cities, Martin Sargeant, has been charged with fraud by false representation and money laundering, it was confirmed on Friday. The diocese of London revealed that the sum involved is in the region of £5 million.
News that Mr Sargeant had been arrested emerged two months ago (News, 25 May) but at the time he could not be named.
Mr Sargeant left his post in 2019 after a review by the incoming Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally. A diocesan statement says that, at the time, there was not suspicion or evidence of criminality. “But, last year, the London Diocesan Fund (LDF) made a report to the Action Fraud unit of the police, and a serious incident report to the Charity Commission, after a parish raised concerns about funds they had not received.”
There followed a year of investigation, kept confidential at the request of the Metropolitan Police. The diocesan statement says: “Trustees of the LDF were first informed on a confidential basis, with permission of the police, earlier this year. Any church or other organisation known to be relevant to these enquiries has already been approached as part of the investigation.
“The fraud is historic in nature, and does not relate to Common Fund or the present day funding of parishes. The police’s work has involved extensive analysis of financial records relating to both the diocese and the individual over a long period and the securing of a court order to freeze the individual’s assets. The total sum of money involved is believed to be in the region of £5 million, affecting a number of different organisations.”
Bishop Mullally described the lost funds as “a gross betrayal of trust”. She thanked the police and the London Diocesan Fund’s financial team for their work over the past year, “as they continue to investigate the extent of this complex fraud that was perpetuated over a decade”.
The chair of the LDF’s audit and risk committee, Richard Perry, said that their priority had been to support the police’s work “and to do all we can to secure the defrauded funds”.
He assured parishes in the diocese: “Our independent auditors have also carried out an urgent review of our present-day financial controls, to confirm they are robust.”
Mr Sargeant was criticised at the start of the week in the official review of the death of Fr Alan Griffin (News, 6 July). It was Fr Griffin’s inclusion in Mr Sargeant’s “brain-dump” on leaving his post, in which the Head of Operations listed his suspicions about 42 individuals, that began the investigation that led to his death.
The reviewer, Chris Hobson, wrote: “It is abundantly clear that this individual [Martin Sargeant] was allowed to function with little accountability or supervision during the tenure of the former bishop [Lord Chartres]. Had such accountability and supervision been in place then many of the issues referred to in later interviews would have been resolved at the time they were allegedly taking place.”
He continued: “The [post-]holder was not employed by the diocese, no personnel file appears to have been kept on him and it is difficult to understand where the role sat in terms of hierarchy and more importantly accountability.”