Since the last update, one settlement order, three tribunal orders and two consent orders from the Conduct Committee have been published.
For the matter that was settled, the member was reprimanded, fined £750 and required to pay costs because they failed to provide a competent professional service to a client, contrary to sections 100.5(c) (Professional Competence and Due Care) of ICAEW’s Code of Ethics (effective 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2019) and R113.1 (Professional Competence and Due Care) of ICAEW’s Code of Ethics (effective 1 January 2020).
In the first tribunal case, a member was severely reprimanded, fined £7,500, ordered to provide the information requested of them and required to pay costs because they failed to provide information, explanations and documents requested of them under Disciplinary Bye-law 13.
In another tribunal case, a provisional member breached the guidance contained within regulation 18 of the Level 7 Accountancy Professional Apprenticeship Certificate Regulations by submitting a project report for assessment which incorporated unpublished work created by another person without appropriate acknowledgement, when they knew or should have known that they should not do so. They were given a severe reprimand and an order for remedial training, and were also required to pay costs.
In the third tribunal case, a member was severely reprimanded and fined £7,000 for:
- failing to record the firm’s procedures for anti-money laundering purposes as required by regulation 20 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and regulation 19 of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 in respect of client identity and ongoing risk assessments;
- failing to cooperate with, and provide requested information to, the Practice Assurance Committee, in breach of regulation 8 of the Practice Assurance Regulations; and
- failing to submit the ICAEW annual return for a firm for three consecutive periods, in breach of Practice Assurance regulation 8 for the period 1 October 2018 to 30 June 2019 and breach of Practice Assurance regulation 12 for the period 1 July 2019 to 27 January 2022, and breach of regulation 2.5 of the Professional Indemnity Insurance Regulations for the two later years
The consent orders issued by the Conduct Committee resulted in orders that:
A firm was reprimanded and fined £20,300 in respect of seven audit reports issued stating that the audit had been undertaken in accordance with either International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) or International Standards on Auditing (UK) when the audit was not conducted in accordance with either International Standard on Auditing (UK and Ireland) 500 ‘Audit evidence’ or International Standard on Auditing (UK) 500 ‘Audit evidence’ in that the auditor failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence in respect of the intercompany balances disclosed within the financial statements.
A member was severely reprimanded and fined £6,675 because they:
- caused or allowed their firm to withdraw monies from a client estate bank account for payment of their firm’s fees, which were notified to the client after the event, when:
a. the precise amount of the fee had not been agreed with the client; and
b. the fee had not been accurately calculated in accordance with a formula agreed in writing by the client on the basis of which the amount thereof could be determined; and
c. thirty days had not elapsed since the date of delivery to the client of a statement of fees and the client had not questioned the amount therein specified as due.
This was in breach of regulation 22 of the Client’s Money Regulations (effective from 1 January 2017).
- failed to cause the complaint of their client to be investigated forthwith by a principal as required by Disciplinary Bye-law 11.2.
Both of the above consent orders also included a requirement to pay costs.
Further details can be found on our Disciplinary Database or please visit our Public Hearings page.