AN accountant who tried to gain employment by making someone impersonate a director of a firm has been struck off from the profession.

It was found proven that Talha Sohail, from Bury, “caused or permitted another to impersonate a director” of a firm during a telephone conversation on November 3, 2020, in order to gain employment from a third party.

Sohail had instructed the person to pretend to be a director from MacMahon Leggate Chartered Accountants, based in Kingsway, Burnley.

At a disciplinary committee hearing of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants on April 13, it was found Sohail’s conduct was “dishonest, in that he sought to cause or permit another to impersonate the complainant for personal gain” and as a result he was guilty of misconduct.

The ACCA’s disciplinary committee ordered that Sohail be excluded from the association and that he must pay ACCA costs to the sum of £3,500.

Sohail has the right to appeal the ruling. He had been an ACCA member since 2013.

The ACCA has more than 227,000 members across 176 countries upholding professional and ethical values in accounting, and has been in operation since 1904