Since the last update, the outcome of three tribunal committees, one appeal committee and four consent orders by the Conduct Committee have been published.
Tribunal and appeals committees: The first tribunal committee resulted in a member being excluded and required to pay costs for complaints that the member had behaved unprofessionally by sending a number of emails to various parties that contained language that was either aggressive, obscene or grossly offensive.
The second tribunal committee found two complaints proven against a member that they had failed to reply to 11 professional enquiry requests from a new accountant. The member received a reprimand, fine of £3,000 and was required to pay costs.
The final tribunal committee resulted in a member receiving a severe reprimand, fine of £4,200 and costs for a complaint that they failed to provide handover information and also registered a company for the online filing scheme with Companies House without that company’s knowledge or consent and that this was either lacking in integrity or unprofessional.
An appeal committee considered an appeal against a decision of the disciplinary committee to require an individual to pay a fine of £9,000 and costs and be excluded from membership for a complaint that they falsified fitness-for-work statements and provided them to their employer which was dishonest. The appeal was dismissed in relation to the fine, but a reduction in the costs awarded by the disciplinary was allowed. The member also had to pay the costs of the appeal.
Consent orders were made and published by the Conduct Committee in the following cases:
A member was reprimanded and fined £700 for the following compliance failures over six years:
- failing to notify the Members’ Registrar of ICAEW that they had engaged in public practice within 28 days as required by the Information to be supplied by members regulation 3 (effective from 1 December 2010); and
- failing 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.
A firm was severely reprimanded and fined £42,000 because it had issued an unmodified audit report for a plc when they had failed to obtain either sufficient evidence to draw reasonable conclusions or they had failed to account for a reduction in the parent company’s ownership in a subsidiary.
A member was severely reprimanded and fined £1,400 because they had failed to ensure that their staff had appropriate training or supervision in relation to payroll compliance because they failed to file a client’s full payment submission, registered a new employer payroll scheme without the client’s knowledge or consent, advised that no payroll submission was made because of lack of instruction from the client when this was incorrect and make incorrect Real-Time Information (RTI) submissions.
A member was severely reprimanded and fined £5,200 for the following compliance failures for periods between 14 and 21 years:
- engaged in public practice without holding an ICAEW practising certificate, contrary to Principal Bye-law 51a;
- failing to notify the Members’ Registrar of ICAEW that they had engaged in public practice within 28 days as required by the Information to be supplied by members regulation 3 (effective from 1 December 2010); and
- failing 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.
All the above consent orders came with a requirement to pay costs.
No fixed penalties were publicised in the period.
Further details can be found on our Disciplinary Database or please visit our Public Hearings page.