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Institute bans FD over share disclosure

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8th Jan 2013
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A former top 100 finance director has been excluded from the ICAEW and ordered to pay costs of £20,000 for not declaring 200,000 shares to his wife at the time of their divorce. 

The Institute's January disciplinary report documents proceedings brought against a Slough FD for acting dishonestly in failing to disclose to the court and his then wife that he acquired 200,000 shares in Money Partner Holdings (MPH) in July 2004. 

A consent order was made in April 2005 in Worcester County Court, prompting the disciplinary hearing.

The FD will not be able to reapply for ICAEW membership for the next two years. 

The former FD for Kensington Group who enjoyed "considerable success" in his career, was ordered to repay his wife £481,000 when she discovered after their divorce that he had shares and had disposed of them in 2006 for £1,633,000. 

The MPH set up as a venture between the group and investors for making sub-prime mortgage loans. In the same year, he separated from his wife. 

During the divorce proceedings in 2004, the FD was issued 200,000 shares MPH shares, or 10%, bought using an undocumented loan from Barclays. 

In October 2004 he started to trade as a lender. A few months after, he reiterated through his solicitors that no share options were available to him. 

However, in 2006, Kensignton group purchased almost half of his 200,000 shares and he made a net gain of almost £1.3m. After this, he paid off his loan and MPH suffered huge losses as a result of the sub-prime bubble bursting and closed in 2008, when he was made redundant. 

* * * 

In another disciplinary case, an accountant was excluded from membership for two years and ordered to pay costs of £3,450 for "serious professional misconduct". 

William Evan Price from Pontypool, Wales, failed to pay nearly £90,000 to the Insolvency Service Account when acting as liquidator for TG Beddoe & Son. 

The report documents how Price, who had no defence to the complaint and who wasn't present or represented at the disciplinary hearing, failed to comply with regulation five of the Insolvency Regulations. 

Price wrote to the Insolvency Service in 2009, saying he maintained he had "disbursed the monies to meet liquidation liabilities and so should not have been paid to the Insolvency Service". 

He maintained that all monies were paid to cover costs and are all accounted for.

However, the report said Price didn't account to the Insolvency Service for a large sum of money which represented nearly half of the assets of liquidation, with no justifiable reason. 

"Members of the ICAEW are trusted by many public bodies to treat money put intot heir care in accordance with the law and regulations. A failure to treat money in this way, for which the defendant has been found liable, is to discredit the profession as well as to damage the Insolvency Service and the creditors of any liquidation," it read. 

Price had a previously clean track record, but his lack of remorse and insight was one of the aggravating factors of the case, it also mentioned. 

* * * 

Two more disciplinary cases were detailed in the report, including Charles Horder, London, who failed to prepare and send tax returns or respond to correspondence from three clients. 

Horder also failed to provide handover information of the same clients to  Barber, Harrison and Platt Chartered Accountants in 2010. 

He was severely reprimanded and fined £5,720 and ordered to pay costs of £2,600. 

Eric Gordon Bolam was also severely reprimanded and fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,800 for three counts, including failing to provide a written response to issues and concerns arising from the practice assurance visit. 

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