More quit Moores Rowland
Ambitious financial services provider Chiltern Group has poached Moores Rowland’s entire tax investigations team; the second defection from the Group A firm in just over a week.
The independent tax consultancy, subject of a management buy-out in March from Union Bank of Switzerland, has recruited the five-man team into its specialist tax support division, Williams Jeffery Barber.
Moores Rowland partner Andrew Watt heads the team, which includes David Pert, Steve Besford, Nigel Ellmers and Matthew Taylor – all former Inland Revenue inspectors.
Watt said: ‘Williams Jeffery Barber is a great name; being able to key into that is tremendously attractive to us. We will be much bigger than most of the top 20 firms in terms of tax.
‘The changes in the tax regime give us a great opportunity to get bigger still. It’s New Labour, new danger for taxpayers. The risks for companies and individuals are higher than ever,’ he added.
Andre Bischoff, Chiltern’s group MD, was bullish about the future, predicting turnover growth of around 30% and hinted at another swoop for top tax specialists.
For Moores Rowland, the story is more disappointing. Last week, Accountancy Age reported a series of defections from its Edinburgh office. The firm also lost top personal tax partner Nigel Eastaway two months ago to TaxServe.
The firm said it would replace staff and its full range of services would continue as normal.