Banned PwC auditor ‘spent two hours’ on BHS file

The PwC partner responsible for auditing BHS’s accounts a year before it collapsed spent just two hours signing off the report, an explosive internal email has revealed.

According to Sky News, an email from the chairman of PwC Kevin Ellis sent to over 1000 partners at the Big 4 auditor details the scale of misconduct carried out by its former employee.

Earlier this month the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) handed Denison, who was senior partner of PwC’s northern region,
a £325,000 fine. Dension also agreed not to perform any audit work for 15 years.

Meanwhile PwC itself was slapped with a record £10m fine which was reduced to £6.5m due to an early settlement.

In the email, Ellis described Denison’s supervision of the audit work as “inadequate”.

“He was responsible for the overall quality of the audit, supervising the audit and issuing the auditor’s report.

“He failed to carry out these responsibilities appropriately, delegating too much work to a junior team member and only recording two hours of work during the completion stage.”

Ellis also said that Denison backdated his audit opinion that BHS was a going concern by three days.

The news comes as it was revealed that Sir Philip is challenging details of the FRC’s full report on the auditing of BHS, and Taveta, the holding company for Sir Philip’s Burton-to-Top Shop high street empire.

A hearing is due to take place at the High Court later on Thursday.