Accountants fined for audit and client money breaches
THE Institute of Chartered Accountants censured a handful of North West firms last month.
Each month the body issues a list of firms and individuals who have been subject to disciplinary orders and regulatory decisions.
The latest features disciplinary action against: Manchester-based Beever and Struthers; Blackburn-based PM&M Solutions for Business; and Neil Turner of TT Turner in Marple Bridge.
A regulatory order was made against Stockport-based Hurst for breaching ethics and audit rules.
Beever and Struthers was reprimanded and fined £3,250, as ordered to pay costs of £7,680, for audit failings. The ICAEW said the firm issued service charge accounts for an unnamed property company on six occasions from 2007-11.
But in the “basis of opinion” section, Beevers stated the work was carried out in accordance with international standards on auditing, when “no audit work was performed”, said the regulator.
In addition, “insufficient evidence was obtained” to support the firm’s opinion that the reports were a “fair summary”. In a 2011 report Beevers failed to disclose that a debt due to the company of £70,200 may not be recoverable, said the ICAEW. Another report failed to provide enough evidence on the recoverability of £79,500 owed to the company by leaseholders.
A spokesperson for Beever and Struthers said: “The Investigation Committee of the ICAEW has dealt with a complaint against the practice regarding a service charge examination dating back to 2011. The investigation has concluded and the complaint has in part, been upheld. We can confirm that we have accepted a fine of £3,250, the lowest point on the scale for less serious offences and have also agreed to pay costs of £7,680.”
PM&M was reprimanded, fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,655 for a client money breach. The ICAEW said that the between 2009-14 the firm withdrew client money worth £2m on 108 occasions, “without written authority or in accordance with any written contract with the client”.
In December 2013 PM&M also paid £2,000 of client money into the office account, and separately held £10,000 for two clients for more than 30 days without paying the money into client accounts.
Managing partner Stephen Anderson said: “I can confirm that PM+M has accepted a fine made by the ICAEW. We reported the errors ourselves following one of our own internal compliance reviews. We have since introduced more robust systems to help stop errors such as these happening again.”
Neil Turner of TT Turner in Marple Bridge was also reprimanded and fined £3,000 for client money breaches. The ICAEW’s quality assurance department (QAD) found that between 2010 and 2012 the firm had not operated a client bank account and had paid clients’ money worth £115,000 into the office account. The regulator also said Mr Turner had failed to complete an external client money compliance review in 2013.
Mr Turner told TheBusinessDesk.com: “The money always went where it was supposed to go. That was changed as soon as it was brought to light, but they spent three-and a-half years investigating it. What a waste of ICAEW funds.”
Hurst was fined £2,500 for “providing prohibited non-audit services to a listed audit client”. The firm declined to comment.
