Charles John Lindley Penn

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Charles John Lindley Penn, a sole practitioner admitted in 1961, failed to file his Annual Accountant's Report for the period ended 31 October 2000 (due 30 April 2001) and failed to respond to OSS correspondence. He admitted the allegations, attributing the failure to disruption from a firm merger and mislaid books of account. The Tribunal found both allegations substantiated, imposed a £1,000 fine and £1,039.65 costs, and ordered indefinite suspension if the report was not filed or a waiver obtained by 7 November 2002. No finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Handle inadvertently received material
• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports

Aggravating factors:

• Fundamental regulatory breach affecting protection of client money
• Report remained outstanding at the date of hearing
• Failed to respond to his own professional body's correspondence

Mitigating factors:

• Admitted/did not contest the allegations
• No previous disciplinary record over 41 years on the Roll
• Had filed Accountant's Reports for many years without problem
• Difficulties caused by office move and landlord harassment leading to mislaid books of account
• Coventry firm's accountants' audit at merger revealed no problems
• Expressed shame and remorse