An organization soliciting food bank donations on North Vancouver doorsteps is not actually a registered charity, despite handing out receipts claiming it is.

A fundraiser visited Marian Wilson's Deep Cove home June 11 and said he was raising money for Single Parent Food Banks of B.C., based in Mission. He carried a clipboard with information on the food bank and several visible bank notes.

The man struck up a friendly conversation with Wilson's husband, who eventually gave a small cash donation. The fundraiser, who admitted he was being paid for his time, gave the Wilsons a piece of paper with "Official Charity Receipt" printed on it, along with a B.C. Society Act registration number and a "CRA Non Profit Society" number.

Afterwards, Wilson searched for the food bank in the Canada Revenue Agency's online database of registered charities and couldn't find it.

A quick phone call later, "the government informed me this is a useless piece of paper, good for nothing," she said.

Speaking to the North Shore News, Canada Revenue Agency spokesman Philippe Brideau confirmed that Single Parent Food Banks of B.C. is not a registered charity.

Nor did the food bank obtain a permit from the District of North Vancouver, which is required before a group can solicit door-to-door.

While the sum of money was small, the incident still irks Wilson. "There's a lot of good people out there, and they should be getting the money," she said.

Cpl. David Reece, a member of the North Vancouver RCMP's economic crime unit, said the fundraising appears to be breaking the law.

"A lie is being told, and they have parted with their money accordingly," Reece said. "That makes it, under (Criminal Code) Section 380, fraud under $5,000. The test is if the person who parted with the money says 'Had I known the truth, I wouldn't have parted with the money,' then it's fraud."

Reece said the fundraiser himself may have been working in good faith and would likely be a witness rather than a defendant if the case came before the courts.

"At a detachment level, we would be interested in finding out who is going around canvassing and obtaining money fraudulently," he said.

Single Parent Food Banks of B.C. is a provincially registered society, with Mirek Kwasny listed as its principal.

Kwasny's fundraising activities have left a history of controversy in several communities. He operated the Canadian Charity Assist Society in Maple Ridge as a registered charity until the CRA revoked its charitable status in 2008 following an audit.

According to several Fraser Valley media outlets, the audit found the group "had not maintained adequate books, records or internal accounting controls." Furthermore, "the charity has not devoted all of its resources to charitable activities due to the extensive fundraising expenses and director benefits."

Kwasny has also drawn sharp criticism in the media from food banks in Abbotsford and Richmond, which worried his fundraising was discrediting their own efforts.

Kwasny was convicted and fined in 1993 for three violations of the Income Tax Act. Earlier this week, Kwasny was charged with seven new tax violations.

Kwasny told the North Shore News he was too ill to speak on the telephone but agreed to answer questions via email.

He said his food bank is registered federally as a non-profit society and has filed paperwork with the CRA seeking to become a charity.

Single Family Food Banks of B.C. raised $96,000 in cash in 2010, Kwasny wrote, as well as $20,000 worth of donated food. His door-to-door fundraisers keep 30 per cent of what they bring in, he wrote. One food bank worker gets "some donation" and another has their gas, cellphone and groceries covered, but Kwasny himself doesn't keep any percentage of the group's revenue, he wrote.

Under the Income Tax Act, non-profit groups are specifically defined as not being charities and are not allowed to issue donation receipts. What's more, no member of the organization can keep any of the group's income unless its purpose is to promote amateur sports.

The Single Parent Food Bank does not have a location on the North Shore and Kwasny wrote that he could not recall ever providing food for a North Shore client.

"We have been helping families for 20 years," he wrote. "We have made mistakes, we have learned, we made correction, we got burned by the wrong people, so we are more careful who we let in to the SPFB. This is not done for the money. Myself personally it's my love of Christ and wanting to help people."

Regarding the use of the word "charity" on the food bank's receipts, Kwasny said he "hadn't noticed" it when they went to the printer, but corrected the "mistake" in October of 2010. The one offered to the Wilsons, he wrote, must have been an old one.