School accountant splashes out on giant water bed and room service

Two more light-fingered accountants - one of whom is in jail - have been struck off by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) disciplinary tribunal.  

David Neil Don (44) was earlier found guilty on eight counts of dishonestly accessing a computer system, and one count of money laundering after the former St Patrick’s College executive officer, also the school’s accountant, stole $126,000 from the school.

The Wellington-based accountant pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court last November to accessing a school computer for cash and to pay, among other things, for room service, sweat shirts and a king-sized water bed.

A routine Education Ministry audit of the school's 2010 accounts showed that in addition to spending more than $1000 for sweat shirts, Mr Don had also laundered money between September 2006 and March 2011.

He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in February and was not represented during his subsequent NZICA disciplinary tribunal.

In addition to being struck off the NZICA register, Mr Don has been ordered to pay $5594 costs and expenses to the institute for the tribunal hearing and the investigation by the professional conduct committee.

In a separate disciplinary tribunal, Malcolm Kenneth Carman, a Taupo- based accountant, was struck off and ordered to pay $5500 in respect of costs and expenses after he provided evidence that he was not able to pay an original $11,279 he was ordered to pay.

In addition to transferring money from his client's trust account into his practice account without written authority, Mr Carman deducted professional fees without obtaining written authority from his client.

He also failed to issue annual statements to his client, who has been granted permanent name suppression.

In a separate incident, Mr Carman, who has been in practice for more than 40 years, was found to have transferred $10,274 of a client’s money into his practice account in 2002, when he was “under financial pressure” at the time.

He repaid the funds he took in June 2010, eight years after dipping into his client’s account.

It was in light of this earlier offence as well as the new charges which led to his name being removed from NZICA’s register of members.

Despite a submission by Mr Carman that any notice and publicity arising from the termination of his membership would cause considerable distress to his wife and himself, as he retires and settles in a new area, the tribunal ruled that the decision would be circulated to Mr Carman’s remaining clients.

“For this purpose he shall provide the names and addresses of his clients within 14 days. If he fails to do so, the Institute may publish this decision in the Whangarei newspaper,” the institute’s judgment read.  

Two more decisions, including the outcome of a tribunal hearing of an accountant who used funds from his client's company, of which he was a director, to fund three other companies in which he had vested interests, are expected to be released soon.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/dubious-dealing-trusted-accountant-could-cost-company-thousands-mb-114772