Friends of Milbat
UK fundraising trust for the Milbat resource centre for disabled people in Israel; in 2018 it passed £46,950 from the Wohl and Sobell foundations to Milbat, and it was removed in 2021
| Friends of Milbat
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Other (removed) |
| Founded | 1992-12-11 (registered) |
| Dissolved | 2021-03-30 (removed from the register: Ceased to exist) |
| Registration ID | Registered charity 1015726 |
| Headquarters | London NW3 (address of the trustee who signed the 2018 accounts) |
| Area served | Israel |
Friends of Milbat was constituted on 25 November 1992 and registered on 11 December 1992; it was removed from the register on 30 March 2021 as "Ceased to exist".[1] Its object was the relief of disabled people, in particular through facilities and equipment at the "Milbat Resource Centre in Israel", and the register described its activities as: "We raise funds in United Kingdom and either remit those funds to parent charity in Israel or purchase equipment for the parent charity".[1] Its last register figures, for the year to 31 December 2019, were income of £73,500 and spending of £74,450; the annual return and accounts for 2020 were not submitted.[1] The archived accounts for 2018, a one-page income and expenditure statement signed by trustee Chaim Klein, show receipts of £10,000 from the Sobell Foundation (25 October 2018) and £38,000 from the Wohl Foundation (29 October 2018), and a payment of £46,950 "to Milbat workshop" on 14 November 2018.[2]
Objects and activities
The charity's registered objects read: "FOR THE RELIEF OF THE DISABLED IN PARTICULAR BY PROVIDING AND ASSISTING IN THE PROVISION OF FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT AT THE MILBAT RESOURCE CENTRE IN ISRAEL WHICH WOULD NOT OTHERWISE BE PROVIDED"[3]
The register describes its activities as: "We raise funds in United Kingdom and either remit those funds to parent charity in Israel or purchase equipment for the parent charity."[3]
Register classifications: The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives.[3]
Areas of operation recorded on the register: Israel.[3]
Trustees
The register extract holds no trustee records for removed charities.
Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)
| Capture date | Trustees listed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-01-07 | Chaim Klein (from 06 September 2018); Harvey Harris; Bernard Wolfson (chair); Melvyn Harris | [4] |
Finances
| Financial year end | Income | Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-12-31 | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| 2018-12-31 | £48,000 | £46,950 |
| 2019-12-31 | £73,500 | £74,450 |
Source: register annual-return history.[3]
Archived accounts
Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:
- Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2018[5]
Funding in Israel
- Year to 31 December 2018: payment "to Milbat workshop" £46,950 (14 November 2018).[2]
- Year to 31 December 2019 (register): spending £74,450, recipient not stated.[1]
Israeli partners
The Milbat Resource Centre, described in the register objects as being "in Israel"; its town is not given in the sources read.[1]
Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF
Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.
| Finding | Confidence |
|---|---|
| The register says only that the centre is in Israel.[1] | Not established |
Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is recorded.[1][2]
Controversies and regulatory action
- No Charity Commission inquiry naming this charity was found; it is not named in the 2025–2026 cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements or statement of results, and the charities in the August 2026 settlements class inquiry have not been named.[6][7][8][9][10] The register shows it as removed, giving the reason "Ceased to exist".[1]
- Minimal accounts. The 2018 filing consists of an independent examiner's form and a single-page cash statement with no trustees' report; the examiner's form carries the header date "1 October 2018" while the report is signed 15 October 2019.[2]
Other registers and records
Scotland and Northern Ireland
No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (register export dated 14 October 2026, searched by name).[11] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[12]
The Gazette
Searches of The Gazette notice feeds (all notices, insolvency and company) for the charity's name found no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice.[13]
Grants recorded by 360Giving
No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[14]
Sanctions screening
The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, trustees and officers named in the accounts read for this profile and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found. Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor (UK sanctions ID RUS1127) does not appear among this charity's trustees or officers.[15]
Land and property
The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[3] No title registers were purchased; the HM Land Registry interactive search blocked automated access.[16]
Parliament
Hansard exact-phrase searches for "Friends of Milbat", "Milbat" returned 0 contributions in total.[17]
Web archive
The UK Government Web Archive holds 1 archived Charity Commission register page used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Charity reporting is up to date" and "Other regulators: No information available".[4]
External links
- No current official website.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Charity Commission, Friends of Milbat (1015726): full print Register of Charities, retrieved 16 October 2026 ("11 December 1992: Standard registration 30 March 2021: Removed (Ceased to exist)"; annual return and accounts for 2020 not submitted).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Charity Commission, Friends of Milbat: accounts for the year ended 31 December 2018 UK Government Web Archive, capture of 04/01/2020. (scanned; read by OCR).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification, charity_other_names), extract dated 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Register entry 1015726, full print (capture of 20210107) UK Government Web Archive.
- ↑ Friends of Milbat accounts, year ended 2018-12-31 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200104).
- ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025.
- ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date).
- ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
- ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, export dated 14 October 2026; keyword search of the 25 batch-20 charity names found no matching Scottish registration (a name-only hit for "Sheila & Denis Cohen Charitable Trust" was not established to be connected with the Cohen Charitable Trust and is disregarded).
- ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 16 October 2026 (keyword searches for each of the 25 batch-20 charity names returned zero results).
- ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Friends of Milbat' The Gazette, searched 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-1015726 360Giving, queried 16 October 2026.
- ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-20 screening covered 272 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages, Companies House officers of the five charitable companies, and trustees, examiners and other people and bodies named in the accounts and sources read for this batch; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually. No forename-and-surname match for any person was found; token matches were surname-only coincidences (for example Weiss, Sara, Masri, Cohen) or generic words in organisation names (Limited, Company, Trust).
- ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK – the service returned HTTP 403 (bot protection) to automated access in October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
- ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching the exact phrase "Friends of Milbat" Hansard, queried 16 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints; quoted-phrase search).