Wilson Neill chief struck off register

By PAULA OLIVER

Former Wilson Neill chairman Trevor Mason will end his long career in disgrace after a disciplinary tribunal yesterday ordered that he be struck off as an accountant.

Mason received the penalty - the strongest available to the Institute of Chartered Accountants' disciplinary tribunal - after he was found guilty of the most serious charges an accountant can face.

It is believed to be the first case of its type where a director or chairman of a public company has been struck off.

Mason presided over the spectacular collapse of hospitality and technology company Wilson Neill, after having assured shareholders that the company was posting profits and would continue to do so.

A Dunedin-based accountant, Mason pleaded guilty in court this year to charges relating to failing to file audited financial statements for Wilson Neill on time.

The case before the disciplinary tribunal related to a charge that he misled shareholders when he circulated an unaudited financial report showing a $6.2 million profit.

The report included a statement that "directors do not expect material changes in profitability". But when the accounts were audited and filed, they revealed a $24 million loss.

Mason blamed the problems on internal wrangling at Wilson Neill and his own ill-health.

But the tribunal decided otherwise.

Yesterday it found Mason guilty of negligence, conduct unbecoming of an accountant, breaching the institute's code of ethics, and bringing the profession into disrepute.

Tribunal chairman Jim Hoare told Mason that he had held the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the statutory requests for audited accounts were complied with.

Hoare said that the directors' statement about the outlook of the company was made voluntarily, and Mason had been warned about its contents by auditors before he circulated it.

"To proceed with the release in these circumstances we find both misleading and inappropriate," Hoare said.

Mason appeared shocked by his fate.

He asked that the tribunal not remove him from the register of institute members because he had given a lifetime of service to the profession.

"To end one's professional career in that way would be bad," Mason said.

He had taken the brunt of fallout from the Wilson Neill affair, and it "clearly doesn't seem to matter to some people what the circumstances were".

Again, the tribunal was unconvinced by Mason's pleadings.

It ordered that he be struck off.

It also ordered that he pay costs for the hearing of $12,809.

Mason quickly left the room and later told the Business Herald that he intended to lodge an appeal.

He has 14 days to do so.