A charity that sacked a worker for exposing a fraud says it would be crippled if a large compensation claim is pursued.
The Deans Youth Project – an official provider of youth work for Brighton and Hove City Council – is being asked to pay £33,000 compensation for wrongfully dismissing its office manager.
Trustees expect their £20,000-a-year grant will be held back until the impact of losing an employment tribunal over the case is known.
The charity, based at Woodingdean Youth Centre, runs activities and advice services for young people in Woodingdean, Saltdean, Rottingdean and Ovingdean.
Last month the project was found to have wrongfully dismissed office manager Carolyn Simmons, who had informed management about the falsification of invoices worth £7,650.
An employment tribunal found Ms Simmons was sacked because she was a whistleblower.
Tony Greenstein, who represented Mrs Simmons before the tribunal, is tabling a question at the next full meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council about the running of the charity and has written an open letter calling for the trustees to stand down.
Redundancies
Trustee Dee Simson – a Conservative councillor for Woodingdean – said: “If they want to close the project, all they’ve got to do is push for stupid amounts of money. The trustees are not resigning.”
The amount of work carried out by the project has shrunk in recent months.
Funding for a MyBus outreach project came to an end in September and two part-time workers were made redundant.
Since the redundancies, sessions at the youth centre have been run by trustees themselves, volunteers and contracted-in youth workers.
Coun Simson said 70 young people attended the youth centre in Warren Road on Friday night and 50 new members have signed up in the last month.
A Friday night club is also held at St Nicholas Church Hall in Saltdean Vale, Saltdean.
The whistleblowing case split supporters of the project, with several withdrawing their support.
Investigation
Rottingdean councillor Mary Mears was on the charity’s management committee until last year but gave evidence against the project at the tribunal.
She said: “All I’m interested in is our young people.”
When The Argus reported the tribunal we described the charity as Tory-run.
In fact, only half the trustees were Conservative councillors.
Former Conservative councillor Jan Young, who as an accountant was called in to investigate the invoices, said: “It was the Tory councillors who with my help substantiated Ms Simmons’s report of possible ‘accounting irregularities’ within the charity.
“It was a case of right and wrong and the majority of the councillors supported the right.”
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