TWO people have been arrested during an investigation into a York charity which has helped scores of troubled young people.

North Yorkshire Police said a 55-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman had been arrested in connection with a financial investigation involving a York charity.

"Both have been released on bail as inquiries continue," said a spokesman.

News of the arrests came after The Press revealed that the Charity Commission was investigating the Jack Raine Community Foundation, based at the Enterprise Complex off Walmgate, and had taken steps to freeze its bank account.

The Jack Raine Community Foundation, based at the Enterprise Complex off Walmgate, has provided boxing and martial arts tuition, and also a wider range of educational courses and activities aimed at ‘disengaged’ young people.

But the commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, said it had opened a statutory inquiry into the foundation.

The commission said in a statement that concerns about the charity’s financial controls were raised with it after it was alerted by North Yorkshire Police that a financial investigation was being conducted.

“As a result, the commission made an unannounced visit to the charity’s premises in November 2016 to inspect the charity’s books and records,” it said.

“The commission found insufficient financial records and no evidence of trustee meeting minutes to reflect any decisions taken by the trustee board.

“The commission has established further serious regulatory concerns which has escalated its engagement to an inquiry.”

It said the inquiry would examine whether the financial management of the charity was adequate, including whether appropriate financial controls were in place.

It said it would also look at whether the trustees had complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities as trustees under charity law.

“In order to protect the assets of the charity, the commission has taken steps to freeze the charity’s bank accounts under... the Charities Act 2011.”

It added that after concluding its inquiry, it would publish a report detailing the issues examined and what actions were taken.

According to the commission’s website, the foundation’s aims and activities are “working with hard to reach and vulnerable children, their families and community”. It says the foundation offers support in five key areas: education, welfare, health, community interest and sport. Main areas of work, it says, are dealing with child sexual exploitation, alternative learning provision, engagement through sport, welfare, substance and drink abuse and rough sleeping support.

In the financial year to February 2016, the foundation’s income was £215,400 and its spending was £217,000.

The Press has made repeated attempts to contact the foundation for comment over the past fortnight but with no response, and the doors of its HQ have been closed during several visits.

The foundation was one of the charities supported by former councillor Julie Gunnell when she was Lord Mayor in 2014. Ms Gunnell, who has never been involved in the running of the charity, said at the time: “What I love about the Jack Raine Foundation is that their door is open to all local teenagers, and will work with them, give them confidence through fitness and education, giving them hope for their own futures.”

A teenager called Jade told The Press then that she hadn’t got on in mainstream schools and was ‘always fighting, destroying classrooms,’ but had now turned her life around thanks to the foundation. A 19-year-old man said that without the one-to-one support it gave him, he would ‘probably have ended up in a life of crime – robbing and in trouble with the old Bill.”

The charity is named after Jack Raine, a late former housemaster of the old Castle Howard Reformatory and Approved School, which closed in the mid-1980s.