A charity trustee was able to continue claiming Gift Aid on fictitious donations for six years before the Inland Revenue prosecuted him.
Menachem Simcha Goldin, a trustee of the Yaccov Goldin Memorial Trust, was jailed last week after falsely claiming almost £100,000 of Gift Aid between 1998 and 2002. The abuses were not picked up until April this year.
The Inland Revenue says it can only detect problems through random checks or by investigating information from a third party or an accounting irregularity.
However, the Inland Revenue and the Charity Commission insisted there is no problem keeping track of GiftAid claims.
"We can't audit every charity in the UK every year," said Inland Revenue spokesman David Prince. "But if you get caught, you will get done for any previous instances."
