A West Midlands accountant who behaved aggressively towards HMRC officials and threatened to punch them has lost an appeal to the ICAEW's disciplinary committee tribunal (DCT) that the sanctions imposed for his unprofessional behaviour were too harsh.
As a result, Run Chai Pan has been given a severe reprimand, a fine of £5,000, reduced from £7,500 and is required to pay costs of and costs of £38,637.
The tribunal heard that Pan, who has also used the names Jon Fisher and Simon Yuen Choi Poon, had made a number of threats to HMRC staff over several years, starting in 2006. These included telling an HMRC employee in a meeting to leave or he would punch him, and a series of phone calls in which Pan said he would give an official 'a hammering' and told a woman officer he would give her 'a good punching'.
In one meeting, Pan said he regarded HMRC enquiries as 'war' and told an official he would have been killed if he had entered Pan's premises. In another phone call, Pan told an official that inspectors who visited Chinese takeaways after 9pm were asking to be killed or stabbed to death. The triubnal heard other evidence relating to 'rants' on the phone or in meetings where Pan sought to intimidate HMRC staff.
Pan's grounds for appeal against the original decision included ill health, the fact that the complaints were old and claims that witnesses had lied and given untrue evidence.
The appeal panel said it was 'fanciful' that the witnesses from HMRC had engaged in a conspiracy to defame the appellant either because of his success rate in challenging tax assessments or because they were racially prejudiced against a Chinese.
The panel rejected Pan's appeal as 'hopelessly misconceived' and said he was fortunate to have escaped being excluded from the ICAEW.
In a statement HMRC said: 'We are committed to treating those we serve with consideration and respect. Similarly, our people are entitled to go about their duties free from the threat of physical assault or verbal intimidation so we very much welcome the clear message the ICAEW has sent about the importance of professional behaviour.'
