Take note of the latest disciplinary cases to ensure you or your firm are not making similar mistakes.
Since the last update, one disciplinary tribunal order and one appeal committee order have been published. Six consent orders and no fixed penalty orders have also been issued by the Investigation Committee.
In one tribunal a member was reprimanded for preparing accounts for his own firm that contained errors. One other complaint was not found proven.
The Appeal Committee considered an appeal against a decision of exclusion and amended the decision to a severe reprimand and fine of £5,000 for a complaint that the member had sent a letter that he knew was false to HMRC.
The Investigation Committee made the following orders by consent.
A member was severely reprimanded and fined £15,000 for failing to comply with multiple sections of Statement of Insolvency Practice 3.2.
A member was reprimanded and fined £2,800 for multiple compliance failures including:
- failing to notify ICAEW of their accountancy firm;
- submitting incorrect ICAEW annual returns; and
- failing to have a money laundering supervisor for an accountancy firm.
A member was reprimanded and fined £350 for compliance failures including:
- incorrectly referring to their firm as a Chartered Accountants; and
- failing to have a money laundering supervisor for an accountancy firm.
A member was reprimanded and fined £1,050 for multiple audit related failures including allowing his firm to continue to act as auditor to 3 clients for multiple years when the member had a business relationship with the director and majority shareholder of the audited entities.
A firm was severely reprimanded and fined £22,750 for multiple breaches of the Clients’ Money Regulations and Money Laundering Regulations including:
- paying non-client money into the client money bank account on multiple occasions (CMR11);
- having an overdrawn client account balance in the client money bank account (CMR21);
- failing to have a bank trust status letter (CMR9);
- failing to use designated client bank accounts when necessary (CMR 13);
- not reconciling the client bank account at least every 5 weeks (CMR 25a);
- failing to undertake risk assessments under the Money Laundering Regulations;
- failing to have Money Laundering controls and procedures;
- failing to ensure staff were appropriately trained under the Money Laundering Regulations; and
- failing to undertake ongoing monitoring and client due diligence as required by the Money Laundering Regulations.
A member was reprimanded and fined £1,400 for multiple audit related failures including allowing his firm to continue to act as auditor to three clients for multiple years when the member had a business relationship with the director and majority shareholder of the audited entities.