The former treasurer of an archeological charity has been charged in connection with a £100,000 fraud. 

Pamela Bent, former treasurer of Sedgeford Historical and Archeological Research Project, was last month charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting.

Bent, 65 and of King’s Lynn, was charged over offences that allegedly took place between 3 July 2019 and 3 August 2023.

She has been bailed and is set to appear at King’s Lynn Magistrates Court on 18 July.

The charity, which carries out excavation projects in north-west Norfolk, said its newly elected committee began suspecting there were “serious financial irregularities” in its accounts and finances over several years.

“Together with the police, the new Sharp committee and trustees have been working hard to determine the nature and cause of these irregularities,” the charity said.

“This revealed a substantial amount of Sharp's money unaccounted for.”

It said the Charity Commission had been kept informed of the case throughout. 

“The Sharp trustees and committee would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the membership that this has occurred,” the charity said.

“Sharp's new committee and trustees, since taking over in 2023, had already started improving systems to make the finances more secure and transparent.

“Since this incident we have updated the financial policy and new procedures have now been put in place.”

The charity had income and spending of slightly more than £65,000 in the year to 1 March 2023, latest accounts show.

Sharp started 2024 with “little in the way of contingency funds”, the charity said.

“Although we are hopeful that we will break even, we are still being hampered by increased hire costs,” the charity said.

“We do still have goals to get ourselves sustainable, by reducing yearly hire costs, but we think this may now take us much longer considering the situation and lack of funds. 

“It is a project still being actively worked on by several trustees.”