Many uk fellowship churches are now registered charites with the multiple thousands of pounds in gift aid claimed from the government as a result. To claim this they have to submit a statement of accounts every year which is checked by an INDEPENDANT ACCOUNTANT.

I am going to reveal who that INDEPENDANT ACCOUNTANT is.

HIS NAME IS JOHN GALT.

For those of you who don't know him here are a few things you need to know about John Galt accounting services.

1 - Galt was a fellowship pastor
2- He is poresently an evangelist in the fellowship
3 - He is also on the payroll of the Norwich Potters House as is his wife
4 - He is a trustee of that church.
5 - Trutsees of churches he independantly checks are fiancially linked to the Norwich church.

I am building up a record of information about this.
If you want to know more then read the reports below

[www.habakkuk2-4.com]

It's not just John Galt folks! He has a relative by the name of Ian Galt who also works an an accountant. This is what I've found

1 / Ian has checked the finacial statement of accounts for the Newcastle Potters House {U.k} in 2001 AND 2005 at least.

2 / All of the last 5 annual reports have been checked by John Galt accounting services.

3 / They recieve hundreds of pounds a time for this service.

4 / By law these accounting checks have to be done by someone independant.

5 / Ian Galt is a trustee of the Newcastle Potters House!

6 / Unlike the other Potters House churches on none of the 5 annual documents I have examined have the trustees EVER been named.

7 / In fact the document for 2004 relating to the accounting check with the accountant s signature on it is missing.

The U.K charities commission is undermanned and underfunded so therefore they will only investigate and go after significant sized charities that bring in a certain amount of money. This is how tiny churches like Newcastle are getting away with it.

Ian Galt : Independant financial examiner AND trustee? All this information is available on charity commission archives which are publically available to view on the internet. If you are giving money to the Potters House may I respectfully suggest you find somewhere else to donate your hard earned cash. The financial accountability is lamentable.

O.K here is a clarification {which may work out to be anything but that}

According to someone who knew Galt I have been informed that John and Ian may well be the same person! Apparently John's proper first name is Ian but he is commonly nicknamed John. However John also has a teenage son called Ian. What I've noticed is that some documents from the Potters house are signed John Galt and some are signed Ian. Isn't he supposed to sign his real name?

This doesn't explain why Ian Galt is named as both a trustee AND the independant accountant to check the records of the Potters House in Newcastle upon tyne. Incidently the only OTHER trustee of that church is the pastor himself! The church has only been going for around 15 years so maybe they are having trouble finding trustees from the congregation....not.

Just to show how committed the U.K Potters House are to 'independant accounting' several of their U.K churches have availed themselves of the services of one Christine Richmond to check their records before they make their submisssions to the charities commission. In case you don't know who 'independant accountant' Christine Richmond is then allow me to enlighten you.

Christine Richmond is the wife of Tottenham pastor BRYAN Richmond who himself is in the board of trustees of several Potters House churches.

You will also find on all records eveidence that 10% of all income is paid to mother churches thus showing that these churches are not really financially independant. This is despite the fact that one church had the audacity to describe that 10% payment as a 'gift'. Those of us who know the Potters House system know it is anything but that.

regards...naboth675

[www.habakkuk2-4.com]

Does this John Galt have anything to do with Ayn Rand's famous book, [i:dd5ff833a8]Atlas Shrugged[/i:dd5ff833a8]?

I'm afraid I haven't heard of the book.

I can confirm though that John and Ian Galt are one and the same person on documents submitted to the charities commission. The list of Potters House U.K churches he has done 'independant' accounting for are as follows.

Luton, Tottenham,Newcastle, Archway, Northampton and Bury st. Edmunds.

This is based on records over the last three years. Records further back may reveal more.

regards...naboth675

[www.habakkuk2-4.com]

The very nature of your claim is quite slanderous. If you check the accounts you will notice that an independent auditor from the Charities Commission has verified the accounts. Basically that means you are calling the CCom. stupid for not niticing the irregularity.

Also .. HABBAKUK, you refer on your website to David Fords utility bill of £17000. Has it not occurred to yu that this figure is the rent for the house and the utilities lumped together. Check the accounts as the parsonage cost is listed as £0. By the same token the year after the accounts for T.Turpin are £6k for utilities and £6k for parsonage.....

You need to read it properly and not clutch at straws.

I would like to respond to miss snoopys comments.

Firstly all the information I have is TAKEN FROM CHARITY COMMISSION RECORDS.

Secondly the charities commission is overworked, underfunded and simply unable to chase up every single issue. They simply aim at the group's bring in much more money than the average pioneer fellowship church. They are prioritising on groups they suspect of being a front for money laundering which is becoming quite popular at the moment.

Your explanation of Fords actions hold no water with me. I was there when it was claimed that Ford was going part time in the church because his IT job was so well paid he could live off a part time salary and commit the rest of his time to the church. 17,000 is a huge amount to take off a tiny work like that. Turpin doesn't take anywhere near that. In short Ford was a liar.

Maybe it hurts you to think your fellowship could be corrupt.

Mmaybe you could explain why Galt is the INDEPENDANT accountant for the Newcastle church and it's only trusteee apart from the pastor?

regards...naboth675

I am not questioning what you say about John Galt. But 500 pounds to do a set of accounts isn't a lot of money. Accountants, like lawyers, are very expensive and charge by the hour. My guess is that he is probably on at least 150 pounds an hour. Even if he get an underling to most of the work for him - he's still not making a lot of money.

Of course, if he's making money because of his connections to the churches in other ways then that's another matter. You're right, the Charities Commission is pretty toothless. But if John Galt is a member of either the ICAoI&W or the ACCA - it might be worth complaining to them. Both of these organisations claim 'integrity' to be one of their core values. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of integrity in this particular accountant's dealings.

Two protesters were attacked in London today by ushers and leaders of the Walthamstow Potters House.

They were putting up posters asking what the pastor of the church really earns when the aforesaid pastor pulled up yelling abuse at one of them. As they made their way away from the vicinity of the church a car driven by a senior member of the church raced up and swerved violently accross the road stopping suddenly in front of the two men. Assistant pastor Jimmy Robinson jumped out immediately and tried to grab one of the men who ran off. A number of others including ushers of the church pursued the other protester through the streets surrounding the church before he gave himself up. One of the ushers held onto him and despite several requests and protestations refused to let him go.

One of the protesters is reportedly slightly injured in making his escape.

The poster which caused such a reaction was worded as follows....

EVER WONDERED WHAT PA$TOR NIGEL BROWN REALLY EARNS?

Below that a picture of Brown was displayed along with the website www.habakkuk2-4.com which reports on the suspected £100,000 per annum remuneration Brown is believed to be getting. The site also exposed fellowship evangelist, trustee and paid employee John Galt as acting as an 'independant accountant' for a number of fellowship churches.

I'll keep you posted on events in due course.

regards...naboth675

I've been having a look at the Potter's House accounts on the Charity Commission website (http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/search.asp?position=1&oparea=S) and they aren't actually too suspicious - there are no large wedges of money going to funny places in the accounts declared.

The only issue that I can come up with as far as these accounts are concerned is with regard to the independence of John Galt which can be disproved beyond doubt - he is very closely connected to the Norwich branch.

It is very likely that John and Ian are one and the same. The 2005 accounts submitted by the Newcastle church were examined and signed by Ian Galt; he gives the same address in his declaration as is the business address of John Galt Accounting Services at the front end of the document. I know the town he lives in and am almost certain that this is a residential address.

If John and Ian are the same person then he is both examiner for and trustee of the Newcastle church. This does not look good.

Despite this it is very unlikely that a prosecution could be brought against him - the resources simply do not exist to do so and there is no evidence to suggest that his rule breaking has had any major consequences (no large sums missing)!

The sad thing is that the Potter's House group is pretty hard to touch legally - even though we all know that there's a guy called Wayman Mitchell lining his pockets with 5% of everything back there in Arizona.

I'm having a look at the possibility of prosecuting them under the UK laws against pyramid selling - the model fits when you consider the chain to be going down the pastors: the rub is that the planted churches are financially supported by their planters until they are solvent.