The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has fined Mazars and David Allen, a partner at the mid-tier firm, now called Forvis Mazars, for serious failures on their work on the statutory audit of the financial statements of Studio Retail Group plc (SRG) for financial year end 26 March 2021. Both the audit firm and Allen were also given severe reprimands, and ordered to pay the FRC’s full legal fees of £973,356.

Mazars was fined £577,125, discounted from an initial fine of £950,000 for the FY21 audit of listed digital catalogue retailer SRG, which failed to meet relevant audit requirements and breached multiple auditing standards.

On a personal level, Allen, the audit engagement partner for the SRG account, who signed off the year end audit and had 20 years of auditing experience was fined £55,000, reduced to £33,412 for ‘exceptional cooperation’.

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