The body that regulates many Scottish chartered accountants is facing legal action over claims it failed to prevent losses caused by a bungling accountant in the Western Isles over nearly 20 years, it has emerged.
The news follows media reports that accountant Angus Nicolson, the man behind the action, has had his licence to practice as an accountant suspended by the Scottish accountancy body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS).
Angus and Sue Nicolson
However, it now looks as if it may be Mr Nicolson who has effectively taken action against ICAS ahead of legal moves over losses incurred by the other accountant who ran a family trust for the Nicolson family.
Sources close to Angus Nicolson, who runs Nicolson Accountancy in Stornoway with his wife Sue, have confirmed he is involved in a serious dispute with ICAS over the conduct of a former business partner. Documents passed by sources also suggest the Nicolson family is preparing a legal action against ICAS which is likely to involve claims for losses over a period of almost 20 years.
It is understood his former business partner is no longer a member of ICAS and is not described as an accountant on his firm’s website.
Papers prepared for possible court action also suggest ICAS has admitted it failed to stop the losses and it now stands accused of stopping short of taking disciplinary action against the accountant concerned for fear of the institute’s own failings coming into the public domain.
The source said: “Despite the spin on the tale given to certain journalists, Angus Nicolson has not had his licence suspended. The truth is that his family is currently building a case for bringing a civil action against ICAS for its inability to stop one of its own members losing tens of thousands of pounds of lost income over a period of 25 years.
“ICAS knew that these losses were continuing to be incurred and yet took no action to stop it.”
The alleged losses due to negligence run into tens of thousands of pounds.
Because of ICAS’s alleged failings and the likelihood of legal action, Mr Nicolson and his wife, who is a member of another accountancy professional association, decided their firm should be regulated by a party other than ICAS and they were said to be in the process of disengaging from it.
“The first stage of the process in suing ICAS is for Angus to remove his practicing certificate and then to remove the ICAS regulatory authority, which is more difficult than it sounds. This also frees him to pursue complaints against ICAS which he is otherwise constrained to do.”
A supposed disciplinary hearing set up by ICAS was described as “just a face-saving exercise”.
Now a report of an investigation by the legal firm Brodie’s into the running of the family trust which has been posted on Mr Nicolson’s Facebook page seems to back up the claims that serious irregularities and professional negligence have been uncovered. See also attachment below.
In the Scottish Accountancy Awards last year, Nicolson Accountancy was named Best Small Firm. Reports in certain media suggesting that Mr Nicolson is now unable to practice as an accountant “are simply untrue”, according to the source.
Mr Nicolson, who is currently abroad, refused to go into detail about his dispute with ICAS. He merely said: “I am prevented from saying anything publicly.”
ICAS, meanwhile, has so far not responded to a request to comment on the claims that it failed to stop the losses and is facing legal action.
Click the following link for the report into the running of the family trust Report for ICAS
thats a bit more informative than what the bbc had yesterday. thank yo mr x
The original story seems to have disappeared from Heb news for some reason. Could certain people have been taking the p–s while you were away Mr Maciver ?? Welcome back sir . They dont like it up em .
very enlightening . who’d have thunk it ??
Wham Bam . bet they and their media mates are now regretting trying to damage angus and sue