Jailed Torex fraudster to face FRC tribunal

Jailed Torex fraudster to face FRC tribunal

Mark Woodbridge, jailed for three years and ten months, was the former group financial accountant of Torex Retail

CONVICTED FRAUDSTER Mark Woodbridge is to face an FRC disciplinary tribunal on 10 July.

Woodbridge, who was jailed for three years and ten months, was the former group financial accountant of Torex Retail.

An independent tribunal panel will hear the FRC’s complaint, alleging that Woodbridge’s conduct “fell significantly short of the standards reasonably to be expected of a member and has brought discredit to him and to the accountancy profession in that he has been convicted by Oxford Crown Court of the criminal offences of false accounting and conspiracy to defraud”.

In 2013, Woodbridge, was convicted alongside Christopher Moore, a former CEO at Torex, and former chairman Robert Loosemore of conspiring to defraud the former AIM-listed company’s shareholders between May and August 2006, by falsely inflating the cash/bank revenue figures of the company’s interim results by £6.5m.

Moore was jailed for 30 months and Loosemore for 20.

The trio created a false distribution agreement worth £5m between the company and Loosemore’s private company Magdalen Consulting, and a false goodwill deposit agreement worth £1.5m between the company and Loosemore.

All three were also found to have conspired between November 2006 and January 2007 to defraud shareholders by creating a false agreement between Torex and Magdalen which purported to vary the original false distribution agreement in order to sustain the original fraud.

Woodbridge was also found guilty of one count of false accounting between May and August 2006 by causing a further sum of £2m revenue to be falsely recognised in the company’s interim statement. He was acquitted of two other counts.

In December, the FRC launched an investigation into the conduct of Moore and Woodbridge under its accountancy scheme.

But in July 2014, it dropped its seven month probe into Moore because of ‘insufficient evidence of misconduct’ during the period in which Moore was a member of the ACCA.

The hearing is set to take place at The International Dispute Resolution Centre, in Fleet Street, London.

Share

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Resources & Whitepapers

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata
Professional Services

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folders and Embrace Metadata

3y

Why Professional Services Firms Should Ditch Folde...

In the past decade, the professional services industry has transformed significantly. Digital disruptions, increased competition, and changing market ...

View resource
2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professional Services Firms

3y

2 Vital keys to Remaining Competitive for Professi...

In recent months, professional services firms are facing more pressure than ever to deliver value to clients. Often, clients look at the firms own inf...

View resource
Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine
Accounting Firms

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

3y

Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine

In a world of instant results and automated workloads, the potential for AP to drive insights and transform results is enormous. But, if you’re still ...

View resource
Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021
Making Tax Digital

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

3y

Digital Links: A guide to MTD in 2021

The first phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD) saw the requirement for the digital submission of the VAT Return using compliant software. That’s now behi...

View resource