Deloitte appeal against MG Rover misconduct charges is successful

Accounting firm Deloitte has had a series of misconduct rulings successfully overturned.

In 2013, the firm was fined £14m after the Financial Reporting Council found it guilty of 13 separate accounts of misconduct over its role as an administrator to MG Rover and adviser to the “Phoenix Four” group of directors that acquired the group from German carmaker BMW in 2000.

At the time of the ruling, the firm’s former partner, Maghsoud Einollahi was fined £250,000 and banned from the industry for three years.

Eight of those 13 rulings have now been quashed after a tribunal found that the accounting firm was not guilty of inadequate regard for public interest and its fees were not excessive or unjustified.

Having racked up debts of around £1.4bn, MG Rover folded in 2005 leading to the loss of 6,000 jobs, while the four directors - Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson, John Towers and John Edwards - were struck off as company directors for a combined 19 years in 2011, after sharing £42m in pay and pensions in 11 years since buying the firm.

Deloitte, which had come under scrutiny a decade ago for its role in the MG takeover, was found guilty of failing to meet the expected standards of objectivity in providing corporate finance advice to the Phoenix Four and MG Rover, as well as for being the carmaker’s auditor.

The accountancy firm welcomed the news of its successful appeal, claiming the original rulings did not represent its “integrity and values”.

“We are pleased that the findings of failing adequately to consider the public interest and deliberate serious misconduct have been overturned,” it said in a statement.

“However, we accept the tribunal’s findings that aspects of our client engagement processes could have been better.”