Lookers switches auditor from Deloitte to BDO after £19m vanishes from its books
BDO will be appointed the next auditor of vehicle retailer Lookers after a difficult final year with Deloitte that saw £19m vanish from its books.
Lookers had been audited by Deloitte for the previous 14 years. The Big Four firm first began auditing the business on 31 December 2006.
Lookers’ ran into trouble with Deloitte this year, after finding a “potentially fraudulent” £19m black hole in its 2019 financial results. When the news went public the troubled retailer’s shares were suspended as the probe into the missing £19m delayed the publication of its results.
In June, Lookers announced Deloitte would be resigning from its position.
BDO said it could not comment on client work. Deloitte also declined to comment.
New non-executive director appointed
Elsewhere Lookers appointed Robin Churchouse as a new independent non-executive director. Churchouse joined the board on 8 December as a member of the audit and risk, remuneration and nomination committees.
Churchouse’s predecessor, Stuart Counsell, will leave Lookers on 1 January 2021, when Churchouse will take over as chair of the audit and risk committee.
Churchhouse has more than 30 years’ financial services experience. Most recently he was CFO of Yorkshire Building Society, having held variety of senior executive roles there after working as finance and commercial director for a number of mortgage servicing companies.
Robin graduated in law at Cambridge and qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC, before working as a financial services regulator and then as a strategy consultant with KPMG.
Lookers chairman Phil White said: “I am delighted to welcome Robin to the Board. Robin’s experience, particularly as a CFO in a large regulated financial services business will be invaluable to Lookers as we continue to develop the business and its future strategy.”