Boris's deputy Ray Lewis 'raided fund for the poor'

Ray Lewis is also alleged to have taken some of the proceeds of a charity raffle and emptied a fund set up to help the poor in Nigeria.

The community leader, who has been praised by Tory leader David Cameron for setting up the Eastside Academy for black boys, quit his London job last week after allegations of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety.

Ray Lewis is alleged to stolen money from a disabled man and proceeds of a charity raffle. Boris meanwhile took part in the Gay Pride march in London

He was forced to admit he had wrongly claimed to be a magistrate.

Mr Lewis, 45, was ordained as a Church of England minister in 1990 but was banned from preaching in 1999.

He was yesterday facing claims that during a posting to the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1997 he organised a charity raffle but failed to give the first prize - a car - to the winner. One of his parishioners there came forward, saying the holder of the winning ticket never received the prize.

Dr Reginald Buckmaire, a longstanding member of the island's parish council, said the car was going to be bought with the money raised in the raffle.

'We got some and I don't know what happened to the rest,' he added. 'You draw your own conclusions. I feel bad.'

Mr Lewis is also accused of stealing around £8,000 from a fund set up with Nigerian bishop Gabriel Akinbiyi.

The clergyman was at theological college in Britain with Mr Lewis

and the pair had agreed to collect money to alleviate poverty in Nigeria.

However, when the Bishop returned home and attempted to release funds for a local project, he allegedly discovered that the account - of which Mr Lewis was a treasurer - was empty.

The Diocese of Chelmsford, where Mr Lewis was then working as a vicar, reported the case to police in 1999 after Bishop Akinbiyi complained.

The Mail on Sunday has also learned that Mr Lewis was arrested on suspicion of deception over a house sale eight years ago.

No further action was taken in either case, and Mr Lewis denies the allegations.

The authorities also informed police in 1999 over money allegedly taken from one of Mr Lewis's most vulnerable parishioners, who has the mental age of a ten-year-old.

Robert Sudders, then 30, worked as an odd-job man for Mr Lewis when he was vicar at St Matthew's church in West

Ham, East London. The Diocese alerted Forest Gate police after claims by a warden at the church of alleged transactions totalling £8,000.

Police investigated claims that Mr Lewis took £2,000 Mr Sudders kept in a freezer because of his mistrust of banks, along with a further £6,000 in benefits which he collected using the odd-job man's Post Office book.

No charges were ever made against Mr Lewis. Mr Sudders asked the congregation to 'forgive Ray'.

A spokesman for Boris Johnson said yesterday: 'Ray is not available for comment but he is adamant that he did not leave Grenada under a cloud.

'Ray maintains that he paid Mr Akinbiyi back. He insists that he never took any money from Sudders but that he remembers the man put his money and precious documents in the church safe.'

The allegations are being examined by an independent investigation into Mr Lewis's appointment as deputy mayor.