A former chartered accountant has been found guilty of misconduct and breaching the profession’s code of ethics after she misappropriated $101,806 from her employer.<\/p>\n
Ciara Marie Britton from Auckland was publicly censured this week after a disciplinary tribunal of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants found against her at a hearing held in December.<\/p>\n
It found Britton made unauthorised payments of around $52,800 from her unnamed employer and its related entities to her personal bank account and made a further $49,000 worth of unauthorised payments from her employer to third parties.<\/p>\n
The misappropriations began shortly after Britton began working for the company in June 2019 and there was evidence some of the transactions were disguised in the company’s records.<\/p>\n
“The misappropriations took place through numerous transactions over a period of more than nine months, until the former member was caught out.<\/p>\n
“As the financial controller of the company, the former member was in a position of trust which was seriously abused. This was professional misconduct at the most serious end of the spectrum.”<\/p>\n
The tribunal also noted that the accountant had been “lacking in candour” when it came to telling the institute why she was resigning as a member, using the excuse of a career break.<\/p>\n
Her resignation came shortly after her employer discovered the misappropriations.<\/p>\n
Had Britton still been a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants when found guilty she would have been removed from its membership.<\/p>\n
The tribunal noted the accountant had since reimbursed the company, had expressed remorse for her actions and apologised to her employer.<\/p>\n
“However, the tribunal is concerned that during the hearing she referred to her conduct (sustained over nine months) as a lapse of judgement and a mistake \u2013 there appeared to be no insight that the conduct was inexcusable and a gross breach of trust.”<\/p>\n
The tribunal also ordered that Britton pay costs of $12,173 and public notification of the decision.<\/p>\n
Britton, who was a winner of the Fashions in the Field event at the 2019 Boxing Day races, sought name suppression on the grounds that it would have a disproportionate and highly prejudicial effect on certain family members.<\/p>\n
But the tribunal found that the circumstances put forward by Britton as reasons for non-publication of her name and locality did not meet the threshold of exceptional circumstances and it declined suppression.<\/p>\n