Wiggins forced to restate accounts
Wiggins Group, the airport and property management company, has been forced to restate its accounts turning a pre-tax profit of £25.1m into a £9.9m loss for the 12 months to March 2000.
The directors reissued the accounts on 8 March 2001 following an agreement with the regulator the Financial Reporting Review Panel in December.
Chairman of the panel, Richard Sykes QC, said: ‘Investors and all those with an interest in a company must be able to rely on its published accounts. Unfortunately, this has not been the case as far as the accounts of Wiggins Group plc are concerned because of the scale of the errors over a considerable period.’
In March 2000, the panel launched an initial inquiry into the company 1999 accounts, which was later extended to include year-end accounts from 1996 to 2000. The directors also decided to restate accounts for year-end March 1995.
Due to initial reticence from company directors, the panel was to apply for a court ruling to force the company to restate its accounts. This is the highest penalty the regulator has.
But as a result of the directors’ decision, the panel decided that an application to the court was unnecessary, according to a panel statement.
The inquiry focused on the company’s accounting treatment of costs incurred in connection with PlaneStation project, a large-scale airport network operation, and revenue recognition in respect of the sales of certain commercial properties.