Prison charity run by conman

AN EVANGELICAL religious charity which has been allowed to run prison wings at jails across Britain is being led by an habitual conman with a 25-year history of fraud.

The Kairos-APAC community - named after the Greek for "God's Special Time" - has already taken charge of wings at four prisons and is set to move into six others. The Prison Service is backing the project because it has reduced unrest.

But an investigation by The Independent has revealed that the Kairos- APAC British national director, Kenner Jones, 48, is a fraudster who was described by American immigration officials as the "best con man" they had encountered.

A leaked confidential Prison Service report into Kairos-APAC - the British version of a successful US-based rehabilitation project - raises serious concerns over the lack of regulation of the project, particularly its charitable trust fund of pounds 300,000. Mr Jones is described as the trust administrator but claimed last night that his days as a fraudster were over and he had no access to its funds.

He is banned from America and Canada where he was jailed for fraud and dishonesty. He was also jailed in Britain as recently as 1996 after perpetrating a series of frauds .

One of Mr Jones' victims, the leading barrister and former MP Alex Carlile, last night called for an investigation of Kairos-APAC by the Charity Commissioners.