Since the last update, one tribunal order, five consent orders from the Conduct Committee, two fixed penalties, and two settlement orders have been published.
In the tribunal case, a member was severely reprimanded, fined £2,000, ordered to pay costs, and required to sign a consent form, for failing to substantively respond to some or all of the correspondence from ICAEW’s Professional Conduct Department, in breach of Disciplinary Bye-Law 10.7 (effective 14 October 2019 to 31 May 2023).
The consent orders issued by the Conduct Committee resulted in orders that:
A member was reprimanded and fined £1,400 for engaging in public practice without holding a practising certificate for over five years, contrary to Principal Bye-law 51a. Secondly, for a period of five and a half years, they failed to ensure their firm was supervised by an appropriate anti-money laundering supervisory authority, contrary to Regulation 8, and Parts 1 - 6 and 8 - 11 of The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (effective from 26 June 2017). Thirdly, for over five years they failed to notify the Members’ Registrar of ICAEW of the formation of their firm within 28 days as required by the Information to be supplied by members Regulation 3 (effective from 1 December 2010). Fourthly, this member engaged in public practice through their firm for over five years without professional indemnity insurance, contrary to Regulation 3.1 of the Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) Regulations.
A member was severely reprimanded and fined £2,100 because they provided incorrect tax advice in relation to the proposed restructuring of a company in failing to advise that a demerger to separate the trading and investment activities of the company would result in an income tax charge on the shareholders. This behaviour was contrary to section 130.1 of ICAEW’s Code of Ethics (effective 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2019) and/or subsection R113.1 of ICAEW’s Code of Ethics (effective from 1 January 2020).
A member was severely reprimanded and fined £4,500 for failing to submit ICAEW annual returns for two years for their firm. This conduct was in breach of Practice Assurance Regulation 12 and/or Regulation 2.5 of the Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) Regulations.
A member was reprimanded and fined £1,400 for failing to ensure that their firm was supervised by an appropriate anti-money laundering supervisory authority contrary to Regulation 8, and Parts 1 - 6 and 8 - 11 of The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (effective from 26 June 2017). Secondly, the member also incorrectly completed two years of ICAEW annual returns as they stated that the firm was a member firm when this was not the case and also stated that they were the firm’s anti-money laundering supervisor when this was not the case. This was contrary to Practice Assurance Regulation 12 (effective 1 July 2019).
A member was reprimanded and fined £1,400 for engaging in public practice without holding a practising certificate for nearly three years, contrary to Principal Bye-law 51a. Secondly, for a period of nearly three years, they engaged in public practice through their firm without professional indemnity insurance, contrary to Regulation 3.1 of the Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) Regulations. Thirdly, for nearly three years they failed to notify the Members’ Registrar of ICAEW of the formation of their firm within 28 days as required by the Information to be supplied by members Regulation 3 (effective from 1 December 2010). Fourthly, they failed to ensure their firm was supervised by an appropriate anti-money laundering supervisory authority, contrary to Regulation 8, and Parts 1 - 6 and 8 - 11 of The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (effective from 26 June 2017) for a period of nearly three years.
The first four consent orders above also included a requirement to pay costs.
One fixed penalty was issued to a member for engaging in public practice without holding a practising certificate for just over two years, contrary to Regulation 20 of the ACA Student Regulations and/or Principal Bye-law 51a. The member was reprimanded and given a fixed penalty of £700 representing a financial penalty of £1,000 to which a discount of 30% was applied.
Another member was reprimanded and given a fixed penalty for committing assault and using threatening behaviour towards a Transport for London member of staff worker contrary to Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and Section 4(1) and (4) of the Public Order Act 1986, which breached R115.1 (Professional Behaviour) of ICAEW’s Code of Ethics (effective 1 January 2020).
One matter was settled whereby the member was excluded and required to pay costs for:
- failing, for a period of around 10 months, to notify the Members’ Registrar of ICAEW of changes to the name and contact details for the sole trader practice as required by the following regulations:
- within 10 business days as required by Practice Assurance Regulation 13 (effective from 1 July 2019); and/or
- within 28 days as required by the Information to be supplied by Members Regulation 3 (effective from 1 December 2010).
- engaging in public practice without a practising certificate for over four months, contrary to Principal Bye-law 51a (effective from 1 October 2021);
- failing to ensure that their firm was supervised by an appropriate anti-money laundering supervisory authority for over four months, contrary to Regulation 8, and Parts 1—6 and 8—11 of The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (effective from 26 June 2017); and
- stating in response to an email from QAD Visits seeking to arrange a Quality Assurance Monitoring review, that: ‘I notified ICAEW that my practice ceased as of the end of January 2021’ but omitted to include that they had not ceased practising but had continued to engage in public practice after January 2021. This conduct lacked integrity because the member knew that their statement omitted information which was required by QAD to assess whether a visit was needed and this omission was misleading and was contrary to subsection R111.2(c) (Integrity) of ICAEW’s Code of Ethics (effective 1 January 2020).
A second matter was settled whereby the member was severely reprimanded and fined £500 for:
- failing to take appropriate action in accordance with the IVA Standard Terms following a breach of the IVA of ‘A’ and as a result failed to:
- comply with paragraph 16d) of SIP3.1 effective from 1 July 2014; and/or
- adhere to the fundamental principle of Professional Competence and Due Care as set out in the Insolvency Code of Ethics effective from 1 May 2020;
- failing to record the vote from ‘B’ Limited in liquidation at the IVA variation meeting and as a result failed to:
- comply with paragraph 16f) of SIP3.1 effective from 1 July 2014; and/or
- adhere to the fundamental principle of Professional Competence and Due Care as set out in the Insolvency Code of Ethics effective from 1 May 2020;
- failing to accept the claim submitted by ‘B’ Limited in liquidation for dividend purposes, in accordance with the IVA Standard Terms, and as a result failed to:
- comply with paragraph 16b) of SIP3.1 effective from 1 July 2014; and/or
- adhere to the fundamental principle of Professional Competence and Due Care as set out in the Insolvency Code of Ethics effective from 1 May 2020; and
- failing to respond adequately to correspondence and/or failing to respond to correspondence and/or failing to respond to a formal complaint and therefore failed to:
- comply with paragraph 16g) of SIP3.1 effective from 1 July 2014; and/or
- adhere to the fundamental principle of Professional Competence and Due Care as set out in the Insolvency Code of Ethics effective from 1 May 2020.
Further details can be found on our Disciplinary Database or please visit our Public Hearings page.