PwC fined £5m over RSM Tenon auditing ‘misconduct’

Accountancy giant PwC, which is being probed for waving through BHS’s accounts before the retailer went bust, has been fined more than £5 million over the collapse of another client.

It has been handed a £6 million fine, reduced to £5.1 million after a settlement, by the Financial Reporting Council after admitting misconduct over its audit of accountancy firm RSM Tenon in 2011.

The accounting watchdog said the misconduct of PwC and Nicholas Boden, one of its audit partners, was “extensive”.

“The admitted acts of misconduct include failures to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and failures to exercise sufficient professional scepticism,” the FRC said.

Boden was fined £150,000, reduced to £115,000 after settlement.

Andy Raynor, RSM’s chief executive in 2011, was fined last year. The firm, which was listed on the stock exchange, went into administration in 2013 before its assets were snapped up by rival Baker Tilly.

The FRC is investigating PwC’s work on several clients, including BHS. The firm stepped down as BHS’s auditor after its sale by Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group to Dominic Chappell’s Retail Acquisitions in March 2015.