Rules relating to Chartered Accountants

[Ermieox]

Can anyone advise whether there are any rules and regulations regarding Chartered Accountants or is it just guidelines?

It's a highly complicated situation but, in a nutshell:-
We had two sub-contractors working for us. Neither we nor they were registered on the CSI scheme (yes we now realise we should've been) there are no written contracts in place and they never submitted any invoices, they were just paid a verbally agreed weekly wage. Anyway, long-story short, the Company has now been put into voluntary insolvency (on the advice of our Accountant) and the sub-contractors are jumping up and down for money they consider that they are owed (despite the fact that the Company has gone bust as a direct result of their incompetance on the last two jobs which they were thrown off-of and which cost us a lot more money than they seem to think they are owed)
Our accountant also works for one of the sub-contractors and is not only telling us what advice he is giving the chap concerned but also appears to be telling him what advice he is giving us! (judging by the fact that everytime we talk to him we get a call from said sub-contractor 3 days later)
Now I don't think he should be doing this and I am now beginning to have concerns about a lot of the advice he has given regarding the business, but have no idea if he is answerable to any sort of governing body or not.
Can anyone advise?

[Skyline D]

Definitely a chartered accountant? Anyone can call themselves an "accountant" of course and not be held to any rules but a "Chartered Accountant" has a series of ethical conduct rules they must abide by issued by their Institute.

They certainly shouldn't be discussing one client's activities with another at any time, never mind when well aware the two are in dispute about something. If he is actually advising both parties in a dispute then he's on dangerous ground but I don't have enough experience in the area to comment further.

I'd suggest you phone the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) for advice (or ICAS if he's Scottish). If your accountant is a member they will be able to advise.

[Ermieox]

Brilliant. Thanks for that I'll give them a call.

[Taylortax]

He may be an FCCA (or ACCA) or one of a number of other associations. Whatever - he should not discuss anything about your affairs with anyone that you haven't authorised him to (apart, possibly, from the Government).
There are probably some letters somewhere on his letterhead (or website) and you can google them to find out which association he's with. Mine are ICPA!