TWO people who were arrested during a police investigation into a York charity have been released without charge.

North Yorkshire Police said the decision to release a 56-year-old man and 59-year-old woman followed a ‘detailed financial investigation’ into the Jack Raine Foundation, which has helped scores of troubled young people in the York area over the years.

“While the police investigation has now concluded, an investigation by the Charity Commission is ongoing,” said a force spokesman.

The commission confirmed its own investigation was continuing but declined to comment further, although it has previously pledged to publish a report detailing the issues examined and what actions were taken after concluding its inquiry.

The Press revealed in June that the charity, which provided boxing and martial arts tuition, and also a wider range of educational courses and activities aimed at ‘disengaged’ young people, was under investigation.

The commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, said then it had opened a statutory inquiry and taken steps to freeze the bank account of the foundation, based at the Enterprise Complex off Walmgate.

It said concerns about the charity’s financial controls had been 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.

The Press has sought to give opportunity to the charity’s trustees to comment over the past week but no one has done so.

Teenagers have told The Press in the past how the charity had helped them turn their lives around, with one saying he would otherwise have probably ended up in a life of crime.

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.

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