An accountant from Cork city has been "excluded" from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) following a disciplinary tribunal that found he had misappropriated clients' funds. Colm Keena reports.

The accountant, Mr John Joyce, a sole practitioner who operated under the name Joyce, Buckley, Crowley, was the subject of a disciplinary tribunal held in March. He can now no longer describe himself as a chartered accountant. It is the first exclusion from the institute arising from such a complaint in recent years.

Mr Joyce, who was "severely reprimanded" by the tribunal, could not be contacted yesterday. He was given 21 days in which to appeal the finding of the tribunal and did not do so within that time.

The tribunal found that Mr Joyce misappropriated or misapplied clients' money for his own personal use without the knowledge and consent of the clients.

The tribunal heard that approximately €750,000 in clients' funds was at issue. Six to seven clients were affected.

The tribunal found that Mr Joyce "deliberately falsified the books of account of clients in order to conceal that he had misapplied or misappropriated for his personal use, monies received from clients to discharge their tax and other liabilities".

It further found that he had failed to deal adequately with the tax affairs of clients in that monies received to discharge tax liabilities were not paid to the Revenue on a timely basis giving rise to interest and penalties for late payment.

The tribunal also found that Mr Joyce failed to comply with the institute's client monies regulations and that he failed to maintain adequate records of receipts and payments in respect of the liquidation of a company.

Furthermore, it found that he failed to ensure that funds received in relation to the liquidation of a company were not intermingled with other funds, failed to inform clients of the basis on which fees would be charged and failed to fully account to clients for fees actually charged.

It also found that he had failed to send notices of resignation as auditor to client companies to the Registrar of Companies and failed to provide information and make clients' files available for review by the institute.

The ICAI website lists six other cases where claims involving fraud or dishonesty and client funds were upheld by the institute's complaints and disciplinary committees since January 2000.

In none of the six cases was a member excluded from the ICAI.