Audit - Capital stands by Deloittes despite investigation

London-based casino operator Capital Corporation is standing by its auditor, Deloitte & Touche, despite an English ICA investigation into the firm’s work dating back to 1996.

The investigation is believed to focus on issues raised in several years’ accounts, when press reports alleged Deloittes issued a qualification on Capital’s interim results.

In the latter half of the year, Pannell Kerr Forster’s specialist hotel and leisure group was asked to compile a report on Capital’s catering operations. Price Waterhouse forensic consultants also looked at the company’s financial controls. Neither firm would comment on their findings.

A Deloittes spokesman said: ‘We have received correspondence from the ICA on the matter and are currently in the process of studying it.’

A spokesman for Capital said the company brought in a new managing director at the end of 1996 and appointed Andrew Chandler as finance director shortly after that. It is currently pursuing a legal action against former acting FD Desmond Perreira.

‘Deloittes continues to act as the company’s auditor, and there is no intention to review the arrangement,’ said the spokesman. New controls are in place to correct the problems, he said, which were subject to due diligence checks when London Clubs launched an abortive bid for Capital in 1997.