Tenon has been reprimanded and given a £1m fine (adjusted for mitigating factors and discounted for settlement to £700,000) and is required to pay £90,000 in costs. Filley, who was also statutory audit partner, has been reprimanded and fined £80,000 (adjusted for mitigating factors and discounted for settlement to £56,000).

The FRC investigation into the Insurance technology and claims management group started in August 2015, alongside a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) criminal investigation into its business and accounting practices.

The admitted acts of misconduct related to two elements of the audits, and included failure to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements as a whole were free from material misstatement, failure to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and failure to exercise sufficient professional scepticism. 

Those elements related to the accounting treatment of the reverse acquisition of Mission Capital plc, and a number of transactions entered into in 2011 by Quindell entities and TMC (Southern) Ltd.  These were both the subject of prior year adjustments in the financial statements of Quindell plc for the financial year ended 31 January 2014.

The remaining part of the investigation, which does not relate to these two parties, is ongoing.

Report by Pat Sweet