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The call that shamed accountancy

PQ Aaron Davie made the national press when he was found guilty of making a hoax telephone call. Tatiana Armstrong reports on the case and its wider implications for the accountancy bodies

PQ Aaron Davie made the national press when he was found guilty of making a hoax telephone call. Tatiana Armstrong reports on the case and its wider implications for the accountancy bodies

Hoax calls Bart Simpson-style are forgivable and even funny, but what this trainee accountant prank caller did was no laughing matter. It was one disgusted PQ reader that led us to this story of a trainee accountant's callous act.
While waiting at a train station on his way home from seeing Aston Villa, PQ accountant Aaron Davie was approached by a teenage boy, who asked to borrow his mobile to call home. This he did, but as the boy walked away to wait for his parents to collect him, Davie redialed the number and told the teenager's father that his son had "just been killed". The boy's father said: "It was the worst 40 minutes of my life. I don't know how I functioned." In court, Davie's barrister said that until that moment Davie "had had a very bright future ahead of him". The 29-year-old accountant said that he felt "shamed, embarrassed and shocked" by what he had done after a drinking session.
Davie has been suspended from his job without pay for what he described as "a sheer moment of madness". He added: "I will always regret that moment". In Birmingham Magistrates court the district judge, Shamim Qureshi, sentenced Davie to 120 hours of community service, a three-month curfew from 7pm to 7am and ordered him to pay £500 in compensation and £87 in costs. As well as this conviction, Davie has received a lot of public vilification for his act. This is what the Daily Mail's online readers had to say:
"Totally sick and callous."
"The judge should tell him that he's going to go to prison for ten years ... then call him back after 40 mins and say, just joking – now he knows how it feels!!"
"Not the greatest crime in the world just a stupid idea that seemed like it was funny at the time – didn't we all do stupid, hurtful things at least once in our lives."
"'Trainee accountant'??? And we wonder why the country's finances are in such a mess? This idiot would be hard pushed handling a broom."
Do you think his punishment was fair? Let us know – email Tatiana@pqaccountant.com.

What do the accountancy bodies think?
Horrified by the actions of this trainee accountant, PQ contacted the accountancy bodies to see, in theory, how their disciplinary committees would treat a student who was found guilty of a similar criminal offence. This is what they had to say:
ACCA: "Whether you are a student or a member the rules are the same. Students are treated in the same way as members with regard to criminal convictions. The Guideline Disciplinary Sanctions on our website explain that the guideline sanction for serious offences is exclusion. It also explains various aggravating and mitigating factors, which may be taken into account, such as the nature and circumstances of the offence and the sentence imposed by the court. As each case is taken on its own facts, in such a case as this we do not know what sanction the committee would impose."
AAT: "The AAT expects all its members to adhere to high standards of conduct in order to protect the reputation of the profession and ensure that the public can have confidence in the integrity of the membership as a whole. Where a member's conduct is called into question, we will investigate to determine whether the member has committed misconduct, under our Disciplinary Regulations. Each case is investigated on its own facts and if the investigation determines that the member is guilty of misconduct our regulations allow us to impose a number of sanctions to hold that individual to account."
ICAS: "A CA student would be liable to disciplinary action if he has at any time been guilty of an act or default, such as would render him unfit to become a member, save those that took place before he was admitted as student and which were properly disclosed prior to his acceptance as a student. Any conviction in the UK of an offence which carries a custodial disposal would be considered by the Institute's Investigation and Professional Conduct Enforcement Committee. Each case is considered on its own merits, but a conviction of an indictable offence or imprison-ment on a summary complaint is prima facie evidence of professional misconduct and would ordinarily result in disciplinary proceedings against the student concerned."
Both ICAEW and CIPFA were less effusive. CIFPA said: "The person the article refers to is not a CIPFA member. Any complaint against a CIPFA member made is rigorously investigated and judgment reached solely on the facts of each case." The ICAEW said: "We wouldn't get involved unless the trainee was one of ours. If they were then we wouldn't comment on any individual case unless and until disciplinary action was taken in the courts."
So if you commit a criminal offence, though each case will be treated individually, you are likely to lose your title and membership – as you would have assumed. CIMA declined to comment.

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