One of the last judgments of the House of Lords before metamorphosing into the Supreme Court concerned an accountancy firm, Moore Stephens. They were being sued by a former client, Stone Rolls Ltd.

Stone Rolls Ltd was effectively run by a Mr Stojevic. The first line of the judgment is 'Mr Stojevic is a fraudster', which is about the only concise statement in a very long judgment.

He had used the company to defraud banks, one of which had successfully sued him and the company for $94 million. Since neither could pay, the company was in liquidation.

Now the liquidators were suing Moore Stephens for not spotting earlier that the company, under Mr Stojevic's control, had embarked on a massive fraud. So the company was suing its auditors for not preventing it sooner from defrauding its bank and hoodwinking its auditors ...

Fortunately Moore Stephens won, but only on a majority verdict.

It takes a lot to make me, as a dedicated tax professional, feel sorry for auditors, but this did it. The word for it is chutzpah, surely.

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