Christian charity boss splurged thousands on company card for flights, bikes and electronics

A Christian charity boss splurged thousands on corporate credit cards for flights to Las Vegas and an Ironman challenge, The Telegraph can reveal.

Noel Frost, 47, used charity cards to pay for flights, bikes, electronics and to transfer more than £130,000 into accounts linked to him personally.

It is now feared that Barnabas Aid, a network of charities funding projects by Christians in more than 50 countries, has a £15 million hole in its accounts, according to internal documents obtained by this newspaper.

Following an independent investigation by law firm Crowell, Mr Frost was sacked by Barnabas, one of the biggest Christian charities in the UK. He has been replaced as chief executive by Colin Bloom, Boris Johnson’s former faith adviser.

An interim report, seen by The Telegraph, says that Mr Frost paid for flights to Las Vegas with two staff members and his son on the corporate credit card and sent a WhatsApp message saying “The trip is on me boys”.

For one employee he bought a new Apple laptop for their daughter and arranged a £15,000 loan from the charity for their application for leave to remain in the UK.

Staff also told investigators that he had paid to rent holiday homes and invited them and their families free of charge, paid for meals out and bought gifts for them while abroad.

Items related to personal trips

One member of the finance team said he “could see that various items on [Mr Frost’s] Barclaycard related to personal trips, and purchases of various electronics, bikes, music-related items”.

The employee said that Mr Frost had not submitted a single expenses receipt in 2023 or 2024.

In September 2023, Mr Frost also used his charity credit card “for travel to and participation in an Ironman event in Austria”, the report notes.

When he was questioned over the flights to Vegas in January 2024, Mr Frost said that his British Airways app had defaulted and he used the charity card in error.

Mr Frost used the same excuse for the booking of return flights for two women from South Africa to the UK in March, an excuse investigators concluded was “not credible”.

The charity said that the staff members did not go to Vegas and were unaware that the flights were on the corporate card.

Mr Frost said that he had already repaid £5,850 and was waiting for a total to repay the rest, but there is “doubt as to how [he] raised the funds” to make the repayment, the report notes.

His corporate credit card statement shows that £137,000 worth of payments for “It Solutions” went into a PayPal account linked to his phone number, and from which transfers were made into his personal account.

A staff member investigating said it was “highly likely” that the payments “are fraudulent”. Mr Frost insisted that they were for IT services.

He is also accused of attempting “fraudulently to extract monies from the charity by forging an invoice to removals company “Move It Dan” which directed that the monies be paid into a Metro Bank account in his name.

Barclays fraud team blocked the £24,000 from being paid. When confronted, Mr Frost claimed it was nothing to do with him as “his satchel, containing his wallet and ID card, was stolen a short while before this incident”.

The report notes that when the charity put his defence to Barclays, an employee said: “In more than 20 years of banking I have never heard a more spurious explanation.”

The allegations against Mr Frost emerged amid bitter infighting at the organisation.

Barnabas has been dogged by controversy for a decade since founder the Very Rev Dr Patrick Sookhdeo was arrested and later convicted of sexually assaulting a female member of staff at the charity and intimidating a witness in the case.

Dr Sookhdeo resigned following his conviction but it later emerged that he had returned to the board of some of the connected charities.

Dr Sookhdeo, his wife and fellow board member Rosemary and co-founder Caroline Kerslake all raised concerns about a lack of financial transparency from Mr Frost earlier in 2024.

The three of them have since been suspended after they were the subject of more than 100 whistleblower complaints which alleged financial impropriety and a “toxic” workplace culture.

The founders, who were locked out of the offices, believe that they were the victims of a “coup” by Mr Frost who encouraged the complaints and used lavish gifts to keep staff members on side.

The report also found Frost was employed as international CEO months after he was struck off as a solicitor in his native South Africa for defrauding his clients.

‘Grossly dishonest individual’

Barnabas Aid were unaware of the judgment in which he was described as a “grossly dishonest individual, who is a threat to the public and a disgrace to the profession” when they promoted him, it is said.

The Crowell investigation into Mr Frost recommended “a forensic investigation of all expenditure” on his charity credit card and other direct payments from accounts he authorised.

“Once the results of the forensic investigation are available, and on the basis that the investigation demonstrates fraud on the part of [Mr Frost], the charity should request the police to conduct their own investigation,” it concluded.

When contacted by the Telegraph, Mr Frost said that in order to “respect the confidentiality of the process” he could not comment on the allegations.

During the investigation he denied buying expensive gifts and allegations that he was behind an “orchestrated campaign” against the founders.

He said he had no knowledge of the proceedings in South Africa before taking the job as international CEO at Barnabas and denied defrauding his clients.

A spokesman for the charity said: “The Barnabas Family of charities continues to do great work supporting some of the most oppressed and marginalised people. The staff team, our supporters and other stakeholders are committed to restoring trust in what we do.

“The independent investigation is ongoing and if it reveals that there has been any financial wrongdoing, then we are committed to recovering it.”

He added that the investigation was focused on “a large number of serious allegations raised by whistleblowers” against the founders “including allegations of financial impropriety”.

It is expected to conclude in the coming weeks.