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."

Scotsman Reporter and a great friend receives an OBE at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh.

Taking a break from reporting on the viles of society, today, I would like to congratulate a great family friend and one of the best reporters I have ever met, Mr William Chisholm, Borders Reporter for the Scotsman Newspaper for over 30 years, for his award of an OBE from Her Majesty the Queen at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.

Link to the awards ceremony here, from "The Scotsman" newspaper : http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=982172006

For more than 30 years, William Chisholm has memorably covered both national and regional issues in Scotland, and also reported on my own experiences with the legal profession, as of course, I lived in Jedburgh, a small town in the Scottish Borders for many years.

Great to see Bill's services recognised and rewarded. His contribution to both Scotland and the Scottish Borders has led to many important issues, of regional and national importance reaching the news which would have otherwise gone unreported.

All the best to Bill and his family for the future !

A link to an article in the Scottish Borders weekly newspaper, 'The Southern Reporter', follows, reporting on a retirement ceremony for Bill last December.
http://www.borderstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=968&ArticleID=1292388

Bill calls it a day by making the news
Andrew Keddie

THE career of one of the Borders most prolific and respected journalists was acknowledged by Scottish Borders Council last week.

In an informal ceremony at Newtown St Boswells, Bill Chisholm, who has retired after 36 years as the Borders correspondent of The Scotsman, was presented with a bronze casting of the famous Reiver monument by SBC convener Alasdair Hutton.

It was, said Mr Hutton, a fitting tribute for the sterling service Mr Chisholm had given to the Borders public.In reply, Mr Chisholm said local government and the press had changed a lot.

"Back in 1969 it was difficult to get information from the county councils because all committees, except education, met in private. Now journalists are bombarded with press releases and spin from public agencies and perhaps, as a result, many have adopted lazy habits."

There was still, he said, a need for investigative journalism to make sure wrongdoers were brought to book.

The gathering of councillors, officials and media colleagues erupted in laughter when he added: "I am one of the few journalists who has worked for a quality broadsheet and a sleazy tabloid – without having to change jobs."Bill Chisholm was born in Berwick and educated at the local grammar school.

He developed a strong interest in writing but says he was was not "academically talented".

"So when I saw an advert in the Berwickshire News for a trainee reporter at the Smith freelance news agency in Berwick I jumped at the chance."

He recalls that his writing test before getting the job was to compile a report on a match between his beloved Berwick Rangers and Queens Park.

"The match finished 4-4 so there was plenty to write about."

The 16-year-old was taught the rudiments of his profession by the late Dave Smith, whose son Ian now runs the business.

"It was here the need to stick to the facts and be fair and balanced was drummed into me. In those days you served the equivalent of a journalistic apprenticeship, picking up the tools of the trade from your seniors. Now it's all about university degrees rather than practical experience."

After three years at Smith's, he left in 1964 to fill a vacancy at the Berwick Advertiser, a Tweeddale Press title, where the variety of assignments would stand him in good stead for the future.

"My mentor was Tony Langmack, who still works with the paper though long past retirement age, and he was, and is, an excellent journalist."

In 1967, he was moved to the Kelso Chronicle, but had been there just three months when a vacancy at The Scotsman was advertised.

He started at the North Bridge newsroom on May 1, 1967.

One of his first "jobs" was to take shorthand notes over a very bad telephone line from legendary sports writer John Rafferty as he covered Celtic's European Cup triumph in Lisbon. He then read out John's stuff to a copytaker who typed it up for the subs.

Bill met his wife Carol, who worked in advertising for the Edinburgh Evening News, in 1968 and only weeks from their wedding day on March 8, 1969, he was summoned to the office of Scotsman editor Alastair Dunnett and offered the post of Borders correspondent.

"The wedding went ahead as planned on the Saturday and 48 hours later I was covering the public inquiry into the proposed Tweedbank development in the Waverley Castle Hotel, Melrose," he recalled this week.

The Chisholms set up home, which included Bill's new office, in Jedburgh and the rest, as they say, is history.

Among his many notable journalistic efforts before a retirement hastened by ill-health, Mr Chisholm cites the sale of the Scottish Special Housing Association stock of houses to Waverley.

"The sale would have passed almost unnoticed without interference from inquisitive reporters. We were able to discover that some of the houses in Galashiels had been sold for £1 each and this led to a National Audit Office enquiry and questions were asked in the House of Commons."

And his assessment of today's crop of national newspapers? "I would say too many daily and Sunday papers spend almost all their time pursuing their own narrow agendas while, at the same time, ramming their views down the throats of readers.
"It's left to good weekly papers like The Southern Reporter to set out the facts for the public without fear or favour. Long may that continue."

22 December 2005

Police fail to find Edinburgh Law Society Accountant`s attacker

Well, what a relief that the cops have cleared everyone on their list of suspects for the attack on Leslie Cumming - certainly it’s good news to those people whose names were maliciously given to the cops by the legal profession just to shut them up .. and well, after the Law Society gang tried to pin it on campaigners & law reformers, by setting the press on them, as Scotland On Sunday reported here :

Scotland on Sunday – Cash laundering link to law chief stabbing :

So, what now for the attacker of Leslie Cumming and the details of the case ? We haven`t really heard much of the Police theories in this case at all ... no leaked names about a client of a lawyer who had been ripped off and Cumming had failed to investigate it .. no leaked names about certain lawyers who wanted their Law Society bosses out of the way so they could get on with their crooked schemes .. nothing at all ... certainly a lot of disinformation though .. the dna discovered at the scene ... my goodness .. with all the competence of the SCRO these days, you would have surely thought they could have pinned it on someone, even maybe planted a few fingerprints just to get a conviction or at least a case going in the courts.

Attack by crooked lawyers on Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming still not solved :

Well, it`s not nice to wish someone harm of course, and I certainly don’t - unlike the bosses at the Law Society of Scotland, who have openly `joked` of my imminent death .. and a few lawyers and bent accountants in the Scottish Borders, who have had a go at trying to get me out of the way too .. but at least I have standards, unlike the crooks I investigate .. so I am pleased to see Cumming has made a recovery as I wished him, when Scotland on Sunday had a go at me over what happened, on the back of press releases from the Law Society and private briefings to reporters.

My sympathies are certainly with him over what happened - I faced a similar threat from a neighbour once over a property dispute in Jedburgh, but Lothian & Borders Police just sat on their behind and did nothing ... reason being now it seems that one of their officers was an investor with this certain neighbour ... good thing I kept the tapes though of what happened .. which is probably why I am still here to write about it.

Pity we didn't get to find out what really happened in this case though ... a disgruntled client of a crooked lawyer or a crooked lawyer out for revenge or or a gang of crooked lawyers out for revenge to cover their tracks, or even a staged attack by the legal profession itself to generate sympathy (some of the ideas which have come in from you readers by email to me) . would have made great headlines and further reading, in the wake of the Justice 2 Committee`s support for the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill. Read on for the article, from "The Scotsman" - who have been following the case for a long time ... unlike the rest of the press :

The Scotsman reports :

Police investigation fails to uncover top official's attacker

MICHAEL HOWIE

THE investigation into a vicious knife attack on a senior Scottish legal official has been wound down after six months of police inquiries failed to identify the perpetrator, The Scotsman can reveal.

Last night the officer who led the inquiry into the stabbing of Leslie Cumming, the Law Society of Scotland's chief accountant, said hopes of finding the knifeman by analysing unidentified DNA on the victim's jacket were all but dashed. Detective Inspector Keith Hardie said comparisons between the DNA and UK police databases, containing the profiles of more than three million potential suspects, had proved fruitless.

Investigations into several lawyers and members of the public thought to have had a grudge against Mr Cumming have also drawn a blank. A sum of ￡10,000 was offered for information leading to a breakthrough, and the case was featured on the BBC programme Crimewatch. But despite the widespread publicity, police have exhausted their principal leads and reduced the number of officers working on the case from 18 to only two.

Mr Cumming, 62, was stabbed more than ten times in a secluded lane behind his home in Murrayfield, Edinburgh, as he returned from work after 5pm on January 23. His balaclava-clad attacker was believed to have been lying in wait behind a tree and attacked Mr Cumming from behind as he locked his car up. Mr Hardie broke the news to Mr Cumming on Monday that the inquiry was being scaled down.

The detective said: "I'm bitterly disappointed we haven't as yet solved this crime and I know that Mr Cumming shares this disappointment." But he is also realistic. It came as no surprise to him that the inquiry was being scaled down. "With the passage of time you become less confident but I am still interested to hear any new information from anybody. If we get a name the inquiry will be resurrected."

Police still believe a hitman was hired to carry out the attack, They compiled a list of aggrieved clients and rogue lawyers who may have ordered the stabbing. Mr Cumming's work as chief accountant for the Law Society saw him oversee investigations into allegations of theft by lawyers from clients.

But Mr Hardie said all those names had been investigated but his team were unable to find any link between them and the knifeman. He revealed that swabs were taken from several people thought to have links with the criminal world, but whose DNA profiles were not known. He said: "We will do a widened DNA sweep when more samples are added to the national DNA database. We've had some success in the past when initial DNA searches have proved fruitless."

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland fight against the public interest to retain self regulation of accountants

It seems that in the wake of the proposals for independent regulation of the legal profession in Scotland, supported by the Scottish Parliament`s Justice 2 Committee in their recent consideration of the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Accountants are feeling the heat of the public cry for the end of the widely public preceived corrupt system of self regulation of the professions, by launching their own public relations drive for retention of their self-regulatory system of complaints against the conduct of their members.

ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland - is the Governing and Regulatory body for CA`s (Chartered Accountants) in Scotland. If you have to employ the services of an Accountant, and they have the letters CA after their name, they are a member of ICAS. If you ever question the conduct of your accountant or need to complain about their service to you, ICAS is the organisation who will handle the matter - and guess what - the accountancy profession is just as corrupt as the legal profession when it comes to the matter of client complaints and compensation against negligent accountants.

In the words of David Wood, executive director of technical policy at ICAS, "The accounting profession knows that it needs to be proactive to demonstrate that it continues to uphold the standards for which it has been granted professional status." This is certainly something the legal profession was never guilty of ... being `proactive to demonstrate that it continues to uphold standards .`

But why this sudden flurry of concern to demonstrate high standards within the accountancy profession ? surely with all the publicity ICAS produces on how excellent it`s members are, along with their influential corporate & political lobbying power .. there can`t be anything wrong with standards in Scotland`s accountancy profession ?

Well - as you guessed it .. the accountancy profession in the UK, which enjoys self-regulatory status at the behest of the Westminster Parliament, is just as crooked and corrupt as the legal profession, when it comes to matters of regulation.

With it`s strong and influentual lobbying power with politicians and other professions, the accountancy profession has, over the years, intimidated those clients who have dared complain against their members ... I should know - I am one of them ! ... and trying to get anything done against an organisation such as ICAS - which has significant political muscle, has been just as difficult as taking on the Scottish legal profession.

This is the untold story of problems with self-regulatory professions within Scotland and the rest of the UK ... - while major problems with the legal profession have featured widely in the newspapers and media over the years ... the problems with crooked accountants have been left largely untouched, and those who have tried to complain against their accountants, have endured the same, or even greater problems of injustice in trying to recover from an assault on their finances by a crooked accountant.

Want an example ?, then read this, along with the attached reports, and see how even the Police were used by a crooked Borders accountant, to cover his tracks of robbing my family : http://petercherbi.blogspot.com/2006/03/norman-howitt-crooked-borders.html

Yes .. the scandal of what you have read at the link above, is a typical example of how the accountancy profession protects it`s own members against client complaints .. amazing isn`t it ? the ICAS Director of Legal Services himself, lets an obviously crooked accountant off the hook from serious complaints of negligence and a lot more, from what began as a fleecing of a dead client`s estate which evolved into a personal vendetta against the beneficiaries .. while of course, the crooked accountant made sure he was paid for his own services ... services for ripping off the dead client`s estate and trying to keep all the money for himself .. even .. stealing a pension book.

So ICAS have produced a new report `as part of its commitment to encouraging debate about ethics ..., ok, so I am debating your ethics then, ICAS .. and how does your latest spin ..."Ethics and the Individual Professional Accountant, by Professor Ken McPhail of the University of Glasgow" ..handle crooked accountants robbing dead client`s estates and carrying out personal vendettas against clients families ? maybe .. just cover up the scandals involving your members as before ?

ICAS can rely on their own political friends such as the Privy Council to keep them safe from clients claims, just like the Law Society of Scotland has been doing, for decades ... after all, the Privy Council is one of their principle friends ... even stepping in to resolve an almost laughable name dispute last year, so as not to upset Scottish Accountants at ICAS

The Privy Council - see : http://www.privy-council.org.uk/ is so wrapped up in the scandal of self regulation of the accountancy profession in the UK, that when I had asked for an FSA investigation into what happened - Dr Tom McMorrow contacted the FSA and submitted some almost hysterical personal comments about me - just like James Ness had done against me at the Law Society complaints committee hearing into Andrew Penman.

The FSA investigation was then halted, and their officials ordered not to cooperate with me any more. I then asked for a copy of McMorrow`s submissions against me (the official way) .. but was denied their release on the grounds of public interest.

The actual decision read : "It is considered to be against the national public interest to assist Peter Cherbi in this matter due to the nature of his request, and that upon such material which Mr Cherbi seeks disclosed, could undermine public confidence in the accountancy profession" - and now they won`t even release a copy of their decision - realising that the exposure of the corruption involved is definitely not in the FSA`s interest .

Where was the involvement from the Privy Council ? well, the FSA consulted apparently them about the case, according to the lawyer who was helping me, but it had already been pointed out that the Privy Council would oppose any assistance being given to me .. so, basically, the Government stepped in on behalf of McMorrow and ICAS, to protect a bent, crooked Borders accountant by the name of Norman Howitt who robbed my family`s finances, and even stole my mum`s pension book ... what a gang of crooks - as some of you have pointed out.

If you were wondering what help I had on this - well, not much. Archy Kirkwood MP was my local member of parliament - he did n-o-t-h-i-n-g, from what I heard, Penman and Howitt were a lot friendlier with the libdems in the Scottish Borders than I was, so our local political representatives weren`t going to help me - and with Kirkwood`s colleague Euan Robson in the Scottish Parliament insisting I dropped complaints against bent lawyer Penman - well - that was as telling a summary of local political help on my case as there ever could be.

So, be wary of ICAS latest spin on ethics in the accountancy profession - their claims are completely bogus and accountants need a dose of independent regulation, just like lawyers are about to get .. without of course, fiddling from the Privy Council.

You would be well advised to beware of your accountant - and ask yourself the question ... "Is my accountant crooked ?" - the chances are - YES ! .. and if you try and do anything about it - ICAS, despite their pretence of being an ethical organisation, will the house down on you, just as they did to me.

Read on for an article, from "The Herald" Newspaper - this time from a member of ICAS .. spouting spin consistent with the lies that I, and plenty other clients of crooked accountants in Scotland, have been used to, for years .. and so begins the campaign to bring independent regulation to the Accountancy profession - don`t let these crooks slip away into continued self regulation like lawyers have enjiyed for decades

http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/65173.html

Ethics report a timely rallying call to the accounting profession
DAVID WOOD July 03 2006Soap Box

Financial scandals and corporate failures have had a detrimental effect on the public's perception of accountants.

The accounting profession knows that it needs to be proactive to demonstrate that it continues to uphold the standards for which it has been granted professional status.

In recent years the Research Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (Icas) has commissioned and undertaken research on the ethical standing of accountants. This work and the resulting recommendations are also relevant to other professions, including the medical and legal professions, which also have had to respond to public concerns over the actions of some of their members.

In October 2004 the institute published an influential report, Taking Ethics to Heart. This report recognised that the responsibilities for upholding the ethical behaviour of the accounting profession lay jointly with individual accountants, the organisations which employ them and the various professional accounting bodies.

Icas is seeking to implement the report's recommendations with respect to education, training and regulatory practice.

For ethics to be fully taken to heart by the accounting profession, members and employers need to ensure that mechanisms for supporting ethical and professional practice are put into place. So what can individual accountants and professional firms do to achieve this?

As part of its commitment to encouraging debate about ethics, Icas has just published a literature review entitled Ethics and the Individual Professional Accountant, by Professor Ken McPhail of the University of Glasgow. The report considers the extent to which the traditional characteristics associated with a profession have substance within the accounting profession: namely commitment to the public interest, and independence and adherence to codes of conduct.

The author looks at the origins of the profession and finds that historically the notions of professionalism and public interest have been construed narrowly in terms of the character and competence of individuals entering the profession.

Competence was narrowly identified with technical ability and knowledge, and character was influenced by middle-class views on respectability.

This report challenges traditional views of professionalism and sets out the author's recommendations for developing a more sophisticated and socially aware accounting profession.

Today, organisations and professions are no longer judged purely on the quality and cost of the services and goods they provide, but also on their wider impact upon society.

Professionals, with their public interest remit, would seem to be well placed to promote and progress the issue of "corporate social responsibility", or CSR.

Recommendations by McPhail address both the ethical and professional development of accountants as well as this wider social responsibility. The first proposal is for participation by accounting students in local community activities.

Often referred to as Service Based Learning, this is fairly well established in the US and gives students the opportunity to put broader aspects of their education into practice in a project that contributes towards a particular community need. This is intended to enhance students' understanding of academic and practical issues while providing an opportunity to reflect on their chosen profession and how it contributes to the community and society as a whole.

The importance of teaching citizenship has now been recognised in our schools and it is important to maintain this awareness throughout what can sometimes be a fairly technical professional education process.

McPhail also suggests that the provision of pro-bono work by accounting professionals - to people or institutions who could not otherwise afford them - could also provide a vehicle for demonstrating the profession's public interest credentials, encouraging professional and ethical development while also contributing to society. Many accountants already do this, particularly in the charity sector. However, professional firms or other employer organisations could play a role in encouraging employees to undertake this work.

With ICAS past-president Sir Robert Smith spearheading the CSR message in Scotland, Ken McPhail's report is a timely rallying call to the accounting profession.

David Wood is executive director, technical policy, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Co-author Michelle Cricket is assistant director, accounting & auditing