Investigations are continuing into the former auditors and directors at NHS IT firm iSoft after an ex-financial controller was banned from practising as a chartered accountant for eight years.
Ian Storey has been kicked out of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) for the period and ordered to pay costs of £20,000 following a disciplinary hearing where he admitted providing “false and misleading” information to the group’s former auditors on a number of occasions between November 2003 and November 2005.
The sanction, delivered following a complaint by the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB), is one of the toughest penalties to be handed down by the independent tribunal system since it was introduced in 2004 and bars him from taking a top accounting job.
But the AADB said it was still investigating the actions of RSM Robson Rhodes, who were auditors for iSoft during the financial years 2003-2005, as well as other individuals holding executive and non-executive directorships during the same period.
A spokeswoman for the AADB said: “We have still got ongoing investigations into the conduct of individuals and the member firm that audited the company.”
The decision on Ian Storey follows the FSA’s announcement in January that it had launched criminal proceedings against four ex-iSoft directors for making misleading statements to the City.
iSoft, which had strong Birmingham connections before it was bought by Australian firm IBA Health Group in 2007, is behind the multi billion-pound NHS Lorenzo software which aims to overhaul paper-based patient records.
