Accountants demand powers to handle wills & legal services, offering 'crooked' self regulation and little consumer protection in return

Hot on the heels of the Commercial Attorney's application to represent members of the public in the legal services market, which I reported on late last week, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland have jumped on the bandwagon and have submitted a similar application to the Scottish Government demanding their ‘Chartered Accountants’ be allowed to handle legal affairs for clients such as wills & probate services.

You can read more about the ICAS application for rights of audience here : ICAS application for rights of audience and other applications made under Sections 25-29 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990 here : Rights of Audience

ICAS application demands accountants be allowed to handle wills & probate services while concealing dangerous lack of consumer protection : "ICAS believes that its practising members, by virtue of their qualifications as Chartered Accountants, and of their knowledge and experience of personal and trust affairs, taxation and the compilation of all kinds of financial statements and accounts, gained over years in the provision of professional services to the public, are appropriate persons to be engaged in these services. It further believes that the public would wish to engage its members' services in this respect. ICAS believes it satisfies every aspect of the public interest."

While increased competition in the legal services market is of course welcomed by most consumers but perhaps not solicitors, the fact is that Scottish Accountants lack safeguards to protect clients & consumers when their work becomes poor, or is sufficiently 'crooked' to the extent that client funds disappear, are embezzled, or lost on notorious financial scams created by the accountants which are so complicated they can never be resolved.

Moreover, when a client discovers they have been robbed by their accountant, they often find themselves bullied out of any legal representation they can obtain simply because the accountants firm is too powerful and linked to many local legal firms businesswise, making it 'not in the interest' of anyone to legally represent clients ruined by Chartered Accountants and proceed cases to sue crooked accountants and their regulator for recovery of lost funds.

One area where such financial scams against clients are easy to get away with, relate to wills & probate services of deceased loved ones, where it is almost impossible to recover the many millions of pounds each year stolen by accountants and solicitors from the estates of dead family members, who willed their possessions & assets to their loved ones but more often end up in the back pockets of the accountants and solicitors dealing with their affairs post death.

The following is what ICAS are seeking in terms of 'rights of audience' for Chartered Accountants to handle certain aspects of legal services for clients :

a. petitions to a Sheriff Court for appointment of executor's dative in intestate estate; (and some testate estates); b. applications to a Sheriff Court to resolve informalities in the execution of certain Wills; c. applications to a Sheriff Court to resolve queries regarding the domicile of the deceased; d. applications to the Court of Session where an original will has been lost but there is an extant copy; e. written applications to a Sheriff Court to present the inventory (of the deceased's estate), which is the basis for which confirmation will be granted.

While the work above will be self-egulated by ICAS - that is, accountants will regulate any complaints against accountants carrying out the work, there will be no external safeguards for clients such as a measure of ‘independent’ regulation and oversight by the new Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, who will regulate the same work only if it is carried out by your solicitor.

Here is the example of what happened to me at the hands of a notoriously crooked Borders Accountant, Norman Howitt, now with the JRW Group of accountants which spans the Scottish Borders : A picture is worth a thousand words - Images of fraud reveal corruption & deceit by lawyers & accountants in the Scottish Borders

Despite ICAS claims to the contrary, there were no safeguards for my late father's assets .. Norman Howitt and the solicitor, Andrew Penman, of Stormonth Darling Solicitors, Kelso, simply pulled the estate apart for themselves, and not content with doing that, Norman Howitt then made a grab for the assets of my mother too, insisting she turn over all her money to him for his own control, losing my mother in a malaise of complicated legal documents she lacked any impartial legal consultation to protect from a very wicked attempt to rob her of her money.

You can read more about what happened and how the Scotsman newspaper covered the story of Norman Howitt & Andrew Penman here : Andrew Penman & Norman Howitt : Lawyer & accountant team up to ruin Cherbi executry estate

Indeed, such were the lack of 'safeguards' on Mr Howitt's activity, when it was discovered he had embezzled money from the sale of assets of my late father into his former accountancy firm's accounts (Welch & Co, Hawick), he fabricated claims to the Police to try and put myself and my legal agents off the scent of his trail of embezzlement ... and as you can see from the 'investigation' carried out by the ICAS Chief of Regulation - Dr Tom McMorrow, who is now the ICAS General Council, Howitt's illegitimate use of the Police to conceal his trail of theft and brutality against my family was kept out of the investigation and report for fear of attracting the possibility of criminal charges against Howitt for his actions.

That is of course, but one case where an accountant deliberately and brutally set out to destroy a family solely for the purpose of gathering the money for his own control - that much is certain from the trail of documents which were leaked to me by solicitors running for cover at the extent of the scandal ... however, the trail of documents also show that Mr Howitt employed others to ensure he got his way, even to the extent of seeing they received huge sums of money free of charge just to ensure his own control over my late mother & father's assets ... a terrible situation which has been repeated many times over the years by accountants who have ruined the affairs of deceased clients for their own personal profit.

You may ask, what steps did I take to recover damages from what Mr Howitt did to my family ?

Well I took every step I could, but Mr Howitt and his accountancy firm, and even ICAS themselves, ensured I could not obtain legal representation to do anything about it. All the local legal firms were bullied into not representing me, because Mr Howitt's accountancy firm does business with all of the local solicitors ... and ICAS and the Law Society of Scotland saw to it I could not obtain any other legal agents from anywhere else in Scotland to handle the case, because of course, there were several firms of crooked solicitors also involved with Norman Howitt's mission to destroy my family's assets.

ICAS claim within their application that Chartered Accountants are required to hold Professional Indemnity Insurance to cover any losses arising from negligence or other losses generated by their poor work for clients.

Indemnity Insurance claims we have all heard before which turn out to be useless : “Practising Scottish Chartered Accountants are required to hold PII cover and the amount is calculated by reference to their fee income (currently, the requirement is to hold two and a half times gross fee income). That level of cover would, in our submission, be insufficient to provide the necessary level of assurance. The precise level of cover is in the gift of the Institute and it would prescribe a minimum level for the firm, calculated by reference to estate values being administered by the member, and impose the further obligation of top-up cover for large estates. Member firms are already required to have "run-off" cover in place for two years post-trading.”

Well as it happens, when clients who have been ruined by crooked accountants ask for details of the indemnity insurance cover, they are kept in the dark, and ICAS themselves wont even disclose it, as I found myself when trying to pursue Mr Howitt for the huge financial harm he did my family - so this insurance cover which accountants hold to cover clients who lose out financially, is simply a pack of lies, a corrupt policy of protection for crooked accountants, similar to the same Professional Indemnity Insurance arrangements which have allowed so many crooked lawyers to escape without paying their ruined victims a penny.

I have reported on the woes of indemnity insurance regarding the legal profession here : Lawyers negligence insurance branded corrupt, anti-consumer as evidence reveals only one per cent of clients get chance of payout

Trust me – the same applies to the negligence & indemnity insurance ‘carried’ by Scottish accountants .. it is a little more than a scheme to protect the guilty from poor ruined clients … also many of the same insurers who insure solicitors, insure accountants …

It comes down to this - As you can see from the ICAS application, Scottish accountants want the power to 'Norman Howitt' your money & assets after your death by raising an application to the Scottish Government for permission to handle your wills and other related legal business which currently, they cant do.

Would you want what you own, what you have, what your family has worked for to be “Norman Howitted” away in a despicable series of events your family could possibly never recover from while trying to cope with your death ?

From my experience, I say that allowing the ICAS application is too dangerous and not in the public interest at this time.

There are inadequate regulatory safeguards over accountants who are still self regulated by their own colleagues, there is a severe lack of consumer protection offered against poor service (despite claims to the contrary) and to be honest, although I am loathed to say it, you are better taking your will and any such related legal business to a solicitor (or a qualified individual who is independently regulated), now that there is at least the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to carry out ‘independent oversight’ of what is going on.

My advice to you all : Keep your will and any legal affairs away from your accountant .. because you or your family will certainly regret the suffering and intense problems they will cause your family in years to come after your death when or if they typically decide to fleece your assets & estate as seems to be so common these days

Don’t believe the claims of ICAS, which is nothing more than a self regulating body which has no wish to compensate for the harm its members cause others.

Scottish Accountants get a General Counsel well versed in whitewashing the crimes of his colleagues

As if to prove in today's Scotland .. that the crooked go further than the honest in society... ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, have appointed none other than Dr Tom McMorrow, their in-house lawyer, to the position of General Counsel.

Dr Tom McMorrow has been the Director of legal services for ICAS, for several years .. then was made executive director, regulation and compliance ... but after having experienced his abilities first hand, his job title should read Chief of Cover ups .. because that's certainly what he did when I made a complaint against one of his crooked colleagues, Borders accountant Norman Howitt of Welch Accountants, Hawick & Galashiels

What did McMorrow do for my complaint against his crooked colleague ? well, he conveniently covered up a lot of evidence in his first investigation of Howitt .. which made no mention of Howitt stealing my mother's pension book & bank books ... and trying to take every penny she had in a dirty scheme involving a crooked Hawick lawyer - Nigel Hall of Haddon & Turnbull, Hawick ... and McMorrow made sure Howitt got off the hook ... making sure there would be no claim for damages against his criminal actions. McMorrow even covered up the fact that Howitt made fake claims to the Police to try and mask his thievery .. and the idiot Borders Police fell for it at the time .. only later realising they had been 'had'.

McMorrow has his own chequered history though .. and twice was thrown off the investigation into Norman Howitt for personal attacks on me, because of my inquiries into a former business partner, an Advocate, who embezzled tens of thousands of pounds of her clients money .. Jennifer Carpenter .. and Advocate who bought McMorrow's legal practice in Falkirk .. and McMorrow certainly didn't appreciate the likes of me inquiring into what happened ... and why the Law Society of Scotland exhonerated him of any involvement .. before anything had even been alleged it seems.

You can read more about how Tom McMorrow covered up for crooked accountant Norman Howitt of Welch & Co Accountants Hawick & Galashiels, here : Norman Howitt - A Crooked Borders Accountant strikes against my family .. and here's a warning on how the crooked accountancy profession in Scotland want in on the act of handling wills & probate services for clients ... after the example of Norman Howitt ripping off my dad's money & getting away with it :
Scottish Accountants try to amend LPLA Bill for their own benefit - but refuse independent regulation safeguards for the consumer

This says a lot for Scotland these days ... where crooked professionals are running key services & industries .. these people often being referred to by their colleagues as the 'great & the good' .. but they are very far from that .. they are nothing more than crooks put in place to save colleagues when they get caught with their fingers in the 'till.

Read the article, from the Herald Newspaper, here : http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/72666.html

ICAS names regulatory guru McMorrow general counsel
PAUL ROGERSON October 23 2006

Dr Tom McMorrow, in-house regulatory expert at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, has been promoted to the position of general counsel of the Edinburgh-based body.

He will work closely with Anton Colella, the new chief executive, on all legal, disciplinary and contractual matters affecting the institute and its 16,000 members.

McMorrow takes up the position three years after being installed as executive director, regulation and compliance at ICAS.

The institute said: "The growing demands of regulators and the increasingly complex international relationships that ICAS is involved in has meant that the legal resources at the institute need to be supplemented."

McMorrow said: "There is no doubt that the legal demands on the institute are greater than before and the monitoring role we have is becoming ever more complex. I'm delighted to be working closely with Anton as general counsel, which allows me to advise him on every aspect of our legal responsibilities." Colella said: "It is fundamental that Tom and I work closely together and this new role allows us to do that.

"The institute needs to continue to be an effective regulator, operate our regulatory function with transparency and ensure that our statutory obligations are fulfilled to the satisfaction of the public and our members. Tom's experience and know-how of the legal obligations and requirements of the institute have never been more important."

Regulatory issues with which the institute is grappling include helping the Treasury to clamp down on unregulated "accountants" who may be involved in money laundering.

The 16,000-member body has been asked to consider sending its monitoring teams into practices staffed by people who call themselves accountants but are not properly qualified.

Scottish Accountants try to amend LPLA Bill for their own benefit - but refuse independent regulation safeguards for the consumer

And so the effort to take apart the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill, gathers momentum .... this time, from the halls of the self-regu;latory empire of the even more crooked accountancy profession, by way of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

ICAS, are seeking an amendment to the LPLA Bill, to allow their member Chartered Accountants or CA's, to have the authority to handle wills and probate .. which is currently an offence under the Law Reform (Misc Provisions) Bill 1990 .. where it is an offence for anyone other than a solicitor to handle such services - although you wouldn't think it from reading my earlier post on this subject here : http://petercherbi.blogspot.com/2006/03/norman-howitt-crooked-borders.html .

However, ICAS must be feeling slightly insecure over the terms of their amendment, since they have also made an application direct to the Lord Chancellor's office in the Department of Constitutional Affairs at Westminster, to authorise their members who reside south of the border, to handle probate services, in what looks glaringly obvious as an attempt to bully the Scottish Executive into inserting the amendment into the LPLA Bill, on the prospect that ICAS application to the DCA will be passed.

ICAS, the Instutite of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, is a seriously powerful governing body for accountants. It has what I would call extreme political clout, and particularly insidious links to government offices, which it's members have used directly in the past to stifle or bury complaints against some of it's more prominent, and corrupt members - certainly in my case, ICAS used it's influence and links with the FSA to kill off any investigation into how one of their accountants - Norman Howitt, ripped off my family, and even persuaded the FSA that it would be against the public interest to help me ... how corrupt is that ?

So, here we have ICAS, the self regulatory body for accountants, swinging their political muscle around again, wanting their way with the new LPLA Bill, which is designed to bring independent regulation to the legal profession .. just to ensure that accountants can get in on the act of handling wills and probate services.

However, while clients of solicitors will have the more powerful, accountable, and transparent shield of independent regulation to guard and protect them against their lawyers ripping them off when it comes to probate services, no such safeguards will exist for those clients who choose their accountants to handle wills and such servies, as accountants are completely self regulated by their own profession - accountants investigating accountants in the form of ICAS, and while ICAS want their members to be able to handle probate services, they certainly DONT want independent regulation to come to the accounting profession.

Indeed, over the past few months, ICAS have embarked on an PR exercise on the merits of their own sustem of self regulation over accountants, fearing that the changes to self regulation planned in the forcoming LPLA Bill, will also eventually come to the accountancy profession ... which I personally feel it should, to give consumers and clients more choice and rights when it comes to dealing with accountants.

ICAS wants us to feel that accounants are more honest than crooked Scottish lawyers.

In reality, accountants are even more crooked than crooked Scottish lawyers.

ICAS wishes us to feel their regulation of their own profession is more honest, transparent, accountable, etc .. than the way the Law Society of Scotland regulates the legal profession.

In reality, ICAS investigations are just as crooked and even more so, compared to the Law Society of Scotland's investigations against crooked lawyers ... so, the crooks of the financial profession beat the crooks of the legal profession ... it basically boils down to that.

Why should the accountancy profession be allowed in on handling probate services under their own system of self regulation, when lawyers who already do such work, will be working under independent regulation ?

I think it comes down to business - accountants want more money, as always, and a way to get it, is to get in on the act of taking on some of the work currently carried out by the legal profession .

More worryingly, having the authority to handle probate services, gives ICAS and the accountancy profession a further say in future legislation which may come in the future ... perhaps for instance, a piece of legislation comes along in a few years to futher protect consumers from occasional inadequacies which have cropped up from the LPLA Bill ... but with ICAS and the accountancy profession having authority to handle probate services .. they would be able to flex their political muscle and prevent such further consumer friendly legislation ... think about that.

There could be a futher and more sinister reason why should ICAS table an amendment to let their members handle such services under self regulatory powers of their own colleagues, in a bill which is designed to bring independent regulation to the legal profession.

The legal profession, don't want the LPLA Bill to come into legislation - even though the Law Society of Scotland officially supported the idea of independent regulation last december, they employed an army of consultants and university based professionals affiliated and paid by the legal profession to come out with a succession of reports condemning independent regulation of lawyers, even claiming it would be against lawyers ECHR rights to be independently regulated.

Well, many of the top officials of ICAS, and those who sit on the various ICAS committees, are also either members of the legal profession, or sit on Law Society committees, or are also connected with organisations which are connected with the legal profession.

Take Tom McMorrow for instance - he is a lawyer - he used to have a practice in Falkirk, Scotland, called McMorrows, which he sold to Jennifer Carpenter, the famous Scottish Advocate who embezzled some £60,000 plus of clients money.

Of course, Tom McMorrow had left the company by the time the embezzlement was discovered, and there was never any suggestion ... that McMorrow had anything to do with it or had any foreknowledge of what happened. At least, the Law Society of Scotland seemed to conclude that, from their own investigation if they carried one out.

So, we have a lawyer, unsurprisingly the Director of Legal Services for ICAS, cosily discussing amendments to the LPLA Bill with the Scottish Executive, also making applications direct to Westminster to make sure the amendment goes through in Scotland ... who himself takes direct part in investigations .. such as in my case against Norman Howitt .. and you can go back to my earlier post and read exactly what he did in that complaint ... yes ... he let Howitt, the crooked accountant, off the hook.

When I mentioned the Carpenter affair to Tom McMorrow in a letter during his investigation of Norman Howitt, and queried his role as an investigator, , he reacted abusively to me in correspondence, and was suspended from the investigation several times ... very odd I think that such a person should have been involved in enforcing 'standards' of ethics ... don't you agree ? .. and even more odd now that he should be trying to table amendments to a Bill of legislation which is designed to being independent regulation to the legal profession, but he does't want the same independent regulation for his own accountancy profession.

Oh .. another one that sits on the ICAS complaints committees ... is, or at least was, none other than Garry S Watson .. the former Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman . who was ordered by the Law Society of Scotland not to disclose documents to be in my complaint against the crooked Kelso lawyer Andrew Penman of Stormonth Darling Solicitors.

Mr Watson supported self regulation of the legal profession for the entire time he was in office, and I would describe his reign as SLSO as being one of the main obstacles to improvement of consumer rights against crooked lawyers .. he was so passionate about how much he supported his legal buddies over at the Law Society so much, he even engaged in letter writing battles with me in the Scotsman newspaper letters section, until someone at the Scottish Executive silenced him.

Indeed .. I remember the heady days that I would write letters in the Scotsman section on the perils of crooked lawyers and the Law Society of Scotland .. then a few days later, they would be responses from Mr Watson and the likes of Douglas Mill, Chief Executive of the Law Society, and other leading 'luminaries' from the legal profession, ... but their letters would always appear on the same days .. as if by some chance , resembling some kind of macabre coordinated ballet against the truth .. it was either that, or the Scotsman letters editor was having some fun portraying them as a gang of liars ... I prefer to think it was the former !

I have of course, made objetions direct to the Scottish Executive over ICAS tabled amendment to the LPLA Bill, and to the Lord Chancellor over the application to the DCA .. so we will see what happens next ... and I will print my objections here in a couple of days for you all to read.

So, people .. don't let crooked Scottish accountants try and mangle the LPLA Bill for their own ends - it will only be to the detriment to the consumer if they get away with this .

If you agree with me, or if you at least want to preserve the spirit of the LPLA Bill in it's quest to bring more transparent and independent regulation to the legal profession, make your objections to the Deputy First Minister, Nichol Stephen, at ; Scottish.Minsters@scotland.gsi.gov.uk, and to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, at : lordchancellor@dca.gsi.gov.uk

I will publish my letters to both in the next couple of days here in this blog .. but for now, read on for the article, from "The Herald" newspaper, at : http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/65567.html (Herald link now out of date)

ICAS increases pressure on lawyers over probate services
NEIL FITZGERALD July 10 2006

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland last week applied for the authority to enable its members in England and Wales to provide full probate services, in a bid to spur the Scottish Executive into giving its members north of the Border the same freedom to compete with solicitors.

Icas started lobbying in March against what it described as a "manifest imbalance" caused by Scottish ministers' failure to keep pace with changes in legislation in England and Wales that have freed up access to the market in probate services.

After recommendations by the Office of Fair Trading, statutory instruments introduced well over a year ago implemented in England and Wales two sections of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990.

These allow financial institutions and members of bodies authorised by the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs to perform a key part of winding up an estate, providing the papers for probate, for a fee.

The Legal Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990 broke the effective monopoly by solicitors by allowing licensed executry partners and banks and building societies also to charge a fee for conducting the equivalent process, preparing papers to apply for confirmation of an executor through the Sheriff Court.

However, it remains an offence for anyone else, including chartered accountants, to charge a fee for this.

Icas reacted furiously when it discovered in March that, not only was there no specific measure to change this in the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill, now going through the Scottish Parliament, but that what the Scottish Executive had said were plans to address equivalence with England and Wales through statute turned out to be non-existent.

Icas has since submitted a proposed amendment to the bill and been in discussion with various people in the executive, including Deputy First Minister and Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen. "We continue to seek a change in the draft legislation to achieve equivalence with England and Wales," said Tom McMorrow, Icas executive director for regulation and compliance.

"The application for us to be authorised by the Department for Constitutional Affairs as a body under the Courts and Legal Services Act applies only to our members resident in England and Wales, and could take several months.

"But our hope is that the Scottish Executive will recognise the very fact that we can apply south of the Border means that there is no reason why an amendment cannot simply be inserted in the Legal Profession and Legal Aid Bill to enable the same up here."

Icas had set up a working party on this issue and feedback showed many members were interested in providing the full probate service, he said, "in particular sole practitioners". In its application to the DCA, Icas says that many CA clients obtaining advice on inheritance tax and financial planning are at a loss to understand why their accountants cannot conduct the winding up of estates as a natural part of that service.

The institute's executive director of membership and marketing, Catherine Eardley, said: "Many customers of CAs will welcome this move. CAs are at least as well qualified as lawyers to deal with the financial and tax implications arising from a death.

"We believe that CAs providing probate services would be good news for consumers. It would bring additional competition and expertise to the market.

That is very much in the public interest and we hope that the DCA will approve our application."

The Law Society of Scotland has already said that it is relaxed about the potential new competition for the full service, including confirmation of executry if the law was changed, especially as it believes most people would still prefer to obtain it from the solicitor who wrote and holds the will.

Meanwhile, if the Icas application to the DCA goes through, it may even beat its counterparts south of the Border in achieving authorisation.

A spokeswoman at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales said last week: "We are working at becoming an approved body, and have held a number of positive meetings with the DCA in this regard."

Crooked Scottish accountants want protection when they tell on their clients

Scottish Accountants running scared to the Home Office, wanting protection for giving information about their clients activities ..... well, that is all well and good, if they suspect or have evidence that their client is participating in illegal activities .. but what happens when you get a spiteful or corrupt member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland who decides to cover up his crooked activities by providing false information on a client to get them into trouble when it's really the accountant who is the crook ???

I was faced with this exact situation, where Norman James Howitt, a corrupt accountant from the Scottish Borders firm of Welch's, and now a member of Eildon Housing Association's Board and also a member of the Borders College board, sold my dead dad's car to a friend of his at a knock down price and pocketed the money to his firm, until it was discovered ... but it was also later revealed he took my mum's pension book for himself, and tried to set up a trust where he even took all my mum's money and made her pay for him to look after it .... which i wrote about with more detail here http://petercherbi.blogspot.com/2006/03/norman-howitt-crooked-borders.html

Mr Norman Howitt, was so intent on covering up what he had done, to avoid detection, that he threatened me with Lothian & Borders Police - and feeding them bogus info about me to cover his own corrupt tracks ... and I was visited by Police at my home to take a statement over his false allegations ... good thing my mum was alive at the time because she was able to back me up that I had done nothing wrong .. and that it was crooked Norman Howitt who was the crook .... yes, lads, I remember very well PC Keith Sudlow from Hawick coming to my house at 47 Bongate, Jedburgh, that Saturday afternoon, to tell me that Howitt had been claiming a lot of lies against me ... to cover his own tracks of course as my own statement revealed ...

So, you can see the evidence for yourself in the blog post I made .. what think ? Howitt a crook or what ? ... fancy, stealing a pensioners pension book, and trying to rob her of all her money ? what kind of a guy is that ? A CROOK of course ... a THIEF ... and for that THIEF to run to the cops and tell them lies about me to try and cover his own tracks ... something like that has to be carefully looked at before being acted upon ......

From what a former Chief Superindentent of Lothian & Borders Police once told me, you have to suspect the people giving the information on someone, as much as the person who is the subject of the allegations ... that being because the motives of people giving information on others can frequently be just like crooked accountant Norman Howitt - to take the heat off their own corrupt crooked activities .... so I think I will be making a written submission to the Home Office that if accountants give information on people, they will have to open themselves up to scrutiny, just in case they are on the fiddle too ... because in my case, Norman Howitt was certainly on the fiddle ... and as you can also see from that blog posting, Dr Tom McMorrow isn't such an angel himself .... he didn't do much on my complaint against Norman Howitt - he was more interested in making sure they could get the crook off the hook and stop me from claiming any compensation for what Howitt did ... in fact, Tom McMorrow was twice taken off the investigation, because he started slagging matches with me in letters, and just told outright lies about things I was supposed to have said - just to get crooked Norman Howitt off the hook ...

Even more sinister was the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland interference with the DTI and FSA about my case .... I had taken the issue of what crooked Norman Howitt had done to both the DTI and the FSA .. but Tom McMorrow sent them some letters telling them to stop listening to me about my case, and he also told them a pack of lies about me to drop my case - so much so that the DTI and the FSA had a meeting about me at Ministerial level and decided that "it would be against the public interest to assist Peter Cherbi as it would jeapordise public confidence in the regulation of accounants within the UK and expose that there were no statutory rules [at the time] for the regulation of accountants" - all this just to protect crooked Norman Howitt from being revealed to be the thief, liar and crook that he really is.

So, Tom McMorrow ... I don't think your motives for running to the Home Office are very honest really - your Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland are just as crooked as the Law Society of Scotland - and it is high time the regulation of accountants is taken away from the likes of you stitch-up boys in your own profession ....

As far as the connection to the Leslie Cumming story is concerned .. well, Cumming is back at work, whereas many of the clients of solicitors he is supposed to regulate .. have their lives totally destroyed ... and McMorrow's concerns over the revelations in the Tessa Jowell & David Mills scandal, are even more laughable ... what does McMorrow really worry about ?? that it will be revealed there was a host of crooked accountants moving money about all over the place for Mills & Berlusconi ??? - remember folks - it's the accountants that usually move the money, and skimp off the tax revenues for their clients .. or create complicated & secret trusts on & off shore - to hide money from the Inland Revenue, the Police, even, their clients .... so, better have a bit more regulation on Accountants I think - rather than blindly listening to them as Tom McMorrow wishes .... and read my blog post at before you read about the wishes of the accountants profession .... http://petercherbi.blogspot.com/2006/03/norman-howitt-crooked-borders.html

Article from Scotland On Sunday at :

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=371302006

Law sparks accountant safety fears
MURDO MACLEOD (mmacleod@scotlandonsunday.com)

SCOTTISH accountants are demanding protection from clients whose questionable activities they must report under strict new money laundering and fraud laws.

The Institution of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS) is asking ministers for assurances that any information their members pass on about criminal dealings will be kept confidential and that they will receive protection from the authorities.

Accountants north of the Border are making the submission to the Home Office, along with their English counterparts, in the wake of a series of threats to accountants and an attack on the Scottish Law Society's chief accountant, Leslie Cumming. The attack on Cumming is widely believed to have been connected to his investigations of crooked dealings among lawyers.

Tom McMorrow, the Director of Regulation and Compliance for ICAS said: "Accountants are obliged to pass on information to the authorities and there are serious worries over how confidential that information will remain."

The matter is being dealt with by the Home Office because money laundering legislation is reserved by Westminster.

McMorrow added that many accountants had been alarmed by some of the coverage of the case of Tessa Jowell and her husband, David Mills, which has seen confidential documents from accountants published in the media.

An insider added accountants were increasingly finding themselves as the target of threats. The source said: "People who launder money are likely to be pretty nasty people. Some accountants have been threatened in no uncertain terms."

Cumming, who was ambushed outside his Edinburgh home by a masked attacker, has told detectives that the assault was most likely ordered by a corrupt solicitor whom he has investigated.

It is thought Cumming, who was treated for knife wounds, gave the police the names of two former lawyers he has investigated for embezzlement and professional misconduct.

Due to the nature of his work, Cumming is understood to have regularly received hate mail.