Accountants fined over Resort Hotels collapse
20 April 2001
Accountants Coopers & Lybrand have been fined £100,000 by for their part in the collapse of Resort Hotels in 1994. Accountancy watchdog the Joint Disciplinary Tribunal has also issued a severe reprimand to Alan Thomas, a former Coopers & Lybrand partner, and fined him £5,000. But the tribunal found there was no basis for a charge of dishonesty against the accountancy firm. Coopers & Lybrand, now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers, were the auditors and reporting accountants for Resort Hotels, which went into receivership in June 1994. Resort's former managing director, Robert Feld, was jailed for eight years on fraud charges in April 1997. He had used forged documents to con 6,000 shareholders and investors out of more than £20m. His sentence was reduced on appeal in 1998 to five years. When the fraud was discovered, the company was forced to sell the business and receivers were appointed. Jarvis Hotels bought most of the former Resort Hotels. The tribunal said Coopers & Lybrand had been deceived by the forgeries. Web link:Joint Disciplinary Tribunal (See Press Notices and Tribunal Reports sections)
