Deloittes confronted Facia over financials

Facia’s auditors Deloitte & Touche warned the company that the manner in which it had obtained finance ‘may have resulted in the commission of a criminal offence’.

The accountancy firm also told its client that if Facia directors did not report the matter to the DTI or the police, then it would. But Stephen Hinchliffe’s retail group collapsed in June before Deloittes could take further action.

The BBC’s The Money Programme revealed this week that Facia paid u58,750 in August last year to Oriri Investments, the directors of which were John Doherty, the United Mizrahi Bank (UMB) employee responsible for lending money to Facia, and his wife. Hinchliffe described the payment as an introduction fee and denied any wrongdoing had taken place.

The London branch of UMB lent u2.75m to Facia via two shell companies because it was not allowed to lend more than u2m to any one customer without the approval of its head office. Doherty was later sacked by UMB for allegedly breaking internal procedures. He is claiming unfair dismissal and denies having received any personal benefit from the payment.