Upton Accountants - more info

[Bugbait]

A counter thought might be that since the matter is sub judice any comment of any description given her relationship with the accused could very easily be contempt of court.

My understanding is that sub judice prevents publicly discussing the merits of a case since it could interfere with due process. If my interpretation is correct this would not prevent Tina discussing it privately with affected clients if she chose to.

[Irn Bru]

Advice

Im sure Tina will have received proper advice rather than an opinion from a forum....and besides, do you think she'd take the risk! In reality, how can anyone be sure that a "private" conversation remains that way?

[Bagpuss]

Considering they're of different ownership, staff, etc don't see why not. I've recently joined Tina and found her new company to be very friendly and efficient.

One of my colleagues used to be with Darren's old firm but dealt with one of the staff who didn't receive good reports.

Personally not affected by what went on with Upton & Co but given there's no involvement with any of the previous lot, have no hesitation in recommending Tina/Freedom, nice to be receiving a personal service that didn't receive elsewhere.

Hello Tina/Darren. Have you transferred over my accounts yet? It's only taken almost 3 months so far!


PS "no involvement with the previous lot", 1 person stands accused of fraud, the same person was made bankrupt for not paying money owed from the collapse of an unregulated scheme, the same person was stuck off by the ACCA who had issues with them running Freedom Accountants without a practicing certificate. That person was/is married to the director of the New company Freedom Accountancy. Are they are now divorced?

There are further revelations in the liquidators report, fascinating reading.

With all this interlinking information it's hard to see the distinction between "the previous lot" and the current lot.

[ASB]

My understanding is that sub judice prevents publicly discussing the merits of a case since it could interfere with due process. If my interpretation is correct this would not prevent Tina discussing it privately with affected clients if she chose to.

It's the contempt of court act which prevents publication. There is no such thing as a private discussion, she would have no idea what any recipient might do as a result of that discussion; this would have potential impact on her as well as on whoever she had the discussion with. Anything anticipatory or predicting could potentially be criminal contempt. There is quite a large hurdle to be jumped for it to be actual contempt though.

Clearly she, understandably, doesn't really want to discuss it, though it is of legitimate interest to customers. A prepared statement cleared with the relevant legal advisers could possibly provide a way forward.

Contempt, such rights as we have to free speech and third party's legitimate interest do not sit very well together.

It is also something that the judiciary are taking a greater interest in with the much easier dissemination of information and individual opinion.

[Irn Bru]

What!!

Hello Tina/Darren.

Er...no!! I've my own opinions, you've your own!

[ZARDOZ]

I'm here reading the facts and not opinions and the 3/4 of clients who have left can't be wrong.

[Waldorf]

It sounds as though any accountancy firm with any variation of "freedom" in its name needs to be avoided?

Perhaps they chose Freedom, as it is a means to buy Darren's "freedom"

[ZARDOZ]

It does seem odd if you wanted to disassociate, start afresh and claim no connection in any way to go on to call the new business Freedom Accountancy when the spouse previously opened Freedom Accountants. Seems to me that a lot of time will be spent reassuring current and potential customers who google the past history. Maybe it's an up yours to those who lost out.

[Bugbait]

Seems to me that a lot of time will be spent reassuring current and potential customers who google the past history. Maybe it's an up yours to those who lost out.

Fortunately for many businesses with questionable histories, even in this Internet age a lot of (potential) customers don't seem to do any research prior to committing.

[Waldorf]

You would think that you would be able to trust a qualified accountant, having said that, anyone who sticks with an accountant who has fallen foul of the FSA rules, has ignored the early warning signs.

They do say, theres no smoke without fire....