Two expelled for criminal acts

Two accountants have been expelled from the English ICA after their criminal activity was found to have brought discredit on the profession.

Jeffrey Norman Burton, of Sale, was banned from membership for at least six years and ordered to pay costs totalling #3,500 for fraud offences which resulted in an eight-month jail sentence last year. Burton acted in a way likely to bring discredit on the profession and the institute, according to the disciplinary tribunal.

He had also been given an eight-year ban as a company director in 1995 after a judge found he had shown a ‘cynical and reckless disregard of his duties‘ as a director of a defunct Blackpool company. He was also a director of two other companies that went bust.

Burton blamed his problems on lack of experience and asked that he be allowed to re-apply for membership after his period of disqualification expired.

In the other case, Keith Baldwin, of Marsh Green, Wigan, was expelled for at least ten years for conspiracy to falsify accounts. Baldwin, formerly a partner with Wigan firm NR Barton & Co, received a six-month jail sentence last year for the offence.