The Financial Reporting Council's (FRC) executive counsel has filed a disciplinary complaint against a former Farepak director and chartered accountant.

The trio of charges allege that the conduct of William Rollason - chief executive of European Home Retail (EHR) plc and Farepak Food & Gifts Ltd - "fell short of the standards reasonably to be expected of ICAEW members" and failed to act in accordance with the body's ethical code.

The complaint alleges that Rollason "drafted and distributed to his fellow directors of EHR a memorandum on 2 February 2006, which he knew was misleading and did not reflect the financial position of EHR".

A second charge alleges that he signed a letter on 7 February 2006 on behalf of EHR to Farepak stating that "EHR would continue to support Farepak to enable it to meet its liabilities as they fell due, which he knew was misleading".

The third and final charge is that he "signed the financial statements of Farepak for the period ended 28th April 2005, which he knew were misleading in that it was stated that EHR would continue to support Farepak to enable it to meet its liabilities as they fell due and accordingly the going concern basis had been adopted for the financial statements".

In July, a High Court judge blamed HBOS bank for the collapse of the Farepak Christmas hamper business which left over 100,000 customers high and dry.

The court heard that HBOS forced Farepak's directors to carry on collecting savers' deposits at a rate of £1m a week - when it knew that the savings club was about to go under.

At the hearing, it was revealed that emails from senior bankers at HBOS, showed they referred to the cash from Farepak's customers as 'Doris money'.

An independent disciplinary tribunal has been appointed to hear the formal complaint.