Accountant expelled following fraud
A Gloucestershire accountant has been expelled from the profession following a fraud conviction for stealing more than £600,000 from Coopers & Lybrand and other consultancies.
The English ICA tribunal found against Jonathan Ashcroft, 39, of Broadwell, who is serving a 42-month jail sentence handed down at Oxford Crown Court last auturmn. The tribunal ordered him to pay costs of £1,022 and said he will not be considered for readmission to the institute for seven years.
It found that ‘in a Crown Court the defendant pleaded guilty to an indictment containing five offences of furnishing false information and four offences of obtaining a money transfer by deception’.
He was charged with submitting false invoices to the Pera Group worth over £300,000, and stealing from Coopers during 1995.
The institute’s tribunal heard that he had no previous record of disciplinary complaints and had co-operated with the police. Ashcroft sold his family home and personal belongings to maximise repayment.