AADB: No second hearing for RSM Robson Rhodes

THE DISCIPLINARY HEARING against RSM Robson Rhodes and former audit partner Glyn Williams took place on Wednesday, and might have led to a decisive win for the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board.

Executive counsel Cameron Scott said "it is unlikely there will be another hearing, make of that what you will".

The hearing was held in private to avoid prejudicing an on-going criminal case against former iSoft directors, who stand accused of publishing misleading business statements, the Financial Services Authority revealed.

Scott said it was "right and proper" to hold the disciplinary hearing ahead of the criminal case - before which the AADB findings cannot be published - because there was "nothing to be gained by waiting" and it was in the interests of respondents to proceed.

Whatever the AADB's findings, they will not be used in the iSoft prosecution, an FSA spokesman said.

"The outcome of a civil case cannot be admitted as fact and might prejudice jurors in a criminal proceeding," he explained.

The AADB investigation into RSM Robson Rhodes' work on iSoft accounts for the three years to 30 April 2005 began in mid-2006, and took around three years to complete.

The iSoft criminal hearing is expected in April 2012. The company is in no way related to Soft Group Ltd, an Australian company formerly known as IBA Health which now trades as iSoft in the UK.