THE curtain has fallen on a North Dorset mother's charity campaign to help addicts on the road to recovery - and former staff fear drug deaths will result.

It has been a rocky year for Mothers Against Drugs Defacto (MADD), with a police investigation and suspension of council contracts, but when Bournemouth council did not renew its contracts with the charity this year the future looked bleak.

The Charity Commission says it is investigating allegations of financial mismanagement at MADD and that it has found evidence of bad record keeping and was unhappy with the way the charity was being run.

The commission employed a receiver manager to take control in order to recover charitable funds and, with no funding from Bournemouth council, he concluded that the charity was no longer viable.

The charity is now going into liquidation and an insolvency hearing was held on Friday October 29 to deal with the matter.

Earlier this month staff at the charity were informed of its closure and made redundant - some say they have been left struggling financially and the woman who established the charity predicted a rise in drug-related deaths.

Janice Kilgariff, from Blandford, set up MADD after witnessing her son's battle to give up drugs.

She stopped working for the organisation in the summer.

She said: "I am disgusted with the way they've treated clients and staff. We provided homes for around 150 recovering addicts. There will be drug-related deaths as a result of it closing. There has been no financial mismanagement while we worked there - I'd like to see evidence."

Vanessa Scoulding was project administrator for MADD and said the charity closure had been so sudden that clients had been left with no contact numbers to access support in an emergency.

A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said: "I is a great shame but unfortunately our role as regulator is to protect charitable funds - it's not our role to step in and carry on duties.

"Social Services and other organisations are well aware of the situation and will step in - people won't be left on the streets."

A spokeswoman for Bournemouth Borough Council said: "The contracts with MADD were suspended as a result of serious allegations in relation to the management of vulnerable adults.

"We are still providing support ot the service users - our housing department is on hand on 01202 451467 to offer housing advice and support to anyone who may need help."

MADD had around 20 dry houses and 40 flats across the county for recovering addicts.

First published: November 3