Safeland recoups a further £0.5m of misappropriated funds

LISTED property developer Safeland has recovered a further £525,000 from a total of £1.7m that was stolen from the business, taking the amounts recovered to £725,000.

The company uncovered the losses in October last year when it discovered "a series of fraudulent transactions" that led to the company restating its 2012 accounts.

Finance director Paul Davis had resigned a month earlier and was later arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation and bailed to appear again in January, Property Week reported at the time of the arrest in December. Davis has not yet been charged.

The discovery of the transactions led to the resignation of Baker Tilly, replaced by Grant Thornton as auditors, because of an "unmanageable conflict of interest".

"The reason for the cessation of audit appointment was that following the identification by the directors of an alleged defalcation, an unmanageable conflict of interest has arisen," Baker Tilly said in a Safeland statement to the stock exchange.