Executive Summary

I am a chartered accountant in public practice with 40 years’ experience as a principal holding a public practice certificate issued by Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand (CAANZ), formerly the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

I have been awarded the designation CA Forensic Accounting Specialist by CAANZ in acknowledgement of my experience and assessed expertise in the field of forensic accounting.

I have experience in most areas of forensic accounting including Family Law investigations and valuations; assessment of personal injury financial losses acting for both plaintiffs and the Motor Accidents Insurance Board; commercial damages arising from breach of contract or provision of defective business inputs; assessment of liability and financial losses in professional negligence matters; valuations of businesses to quantify losses arising from certain events or in accordance with a stakeholders agreement; financial records assessment for criminal matters and assessment of economic loss under insurance policies acting for legal teams of both plaintiffs and insurers.

This experience extends to providing assistance to legal teams through all facets of the legal process and includes appearances in the Supreme Court, in a jury trial in The County Court of Victoria, the Federal Magistrates Court, Federal Circuit Court and Family Court as an expert witness.

I am currently instructed by legal firms which are based in several states and around half my practice is support of legal firms in the litigation process.

The expertise utilised in the performance of assignments arises from a career exceeding 40 years as an accountant in public practice being involved with principally family-owned business as an adviser in respect of business management; business purchase, sale, establishment and winding up of businesses and also as a taxation, superannuation and information process adviser.  This continuing work comprises the other half of my current practice.

Professional Background

I commenced practice as a principal in 1985 and have been a partner in national and international accounting firms since 1991.

I have been engaged by a number of organisations and private firms to present seminars to their members on taxation, GST, business management, business valuation and financial investigation subjects. I have written GST, income tax and negative gearing publications for clients of my firm, industry groups and property investment magazines.

A major part of my work is consulting to family-owned businesses in financial and taxation matters.

Professional Qualifications

I graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1983 with a Batchelor’s Degree in Commerce with sub-majors in Accounting and Finance. I was awarded the designation of Fellow member of CAANZ in 1995, to mark 10 years as a principal in public practice and a significant role in the affairs of the Institute. I was registered as a Tax Agent and Companies Auditor in 1984 but ceased auditor roles in 1999. I am a Fellow member of the Taxation Institute of Australia and a Chartered Tax Adviser.

I was a member of the Forensic Accounting and Business Valuation groups of CAANZ prior to their cessation and regular attendee at the conferences of these disciplines.

I was awarded the designation CA Forensic Accounting Specialist in 2020 by CAANZ following successful completion of a course of study and examination. I qualified to undertake this further course of study by virtue of my practice in the area over a number of years.

Professional involvement in the forensic and litigation process

1. Assessment of economic loss.

I have prepared numerous reports both for the litigation process and otherwise on losses which have been sustained. This also involves both reviewing the work of other accountants and preparing reports commenting on their assumptions, methodology and other relevant issues for instructing solicitors and counsel.

In respect of professional negligence matters I have provided reports and evidence regarding quantum and also as to liability in respect of alleged negligence by an accounting firm. I have appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on several occasions to give evidence on my opinions.

2. Valuations.

I have prepared valuations for clients over many years as part of my firm’s advisory services in order to provide advice on the value of businesses for establishment, purchase or sale evaluation.

This has also included preparing opinions of value in a format required for litigation purposes and commenting on the opinion of value prepared by other experts. My experience in the litigation process has covered informal discussions with legal advisers, investigation of aspects of concern, preparation of expert reports in affidavit form, attending a conference of experts, acting as single expert and appearances in the Family Court and, previously, in the Federal Circuit Court.  

3. Investigations and Analysis

I have conducted numerous assignments where business structures or business operations need to be understood by clients and their legal team and I have been engaged to provide expert assistance.

In other cases, I have been engaged to investigate specific issues of concern to the client or their legal team.

I have been engaged to identify taxation consequences of property settlements and to prepare expert reports of capital gains tax which may be payable, rollovers and other concessions which may be available and the taxation consequences of withdrawal of settlement funds from companies and trusts. Evidence has been provided to the Court on such matters.

I have been engaged to review evidence relied upon by the Crown in respect of fraud charges and prepared a report identifying areas where the forensic evidence did not support the criminal charges which had been laid.

Several assignments have involved the review of accounting records where accounting policies adopted have been an issue in a dispute and providing reports and expert evidence on the appropriateness of the accounting policies adopted. In one instance, this evidence was presented in the Supreme Court and excerpts were cited in the decision.

4. Shadow Expert

Particularly in the single expert environment of Family Law matters, I have assisted a legal team formulate briefs for such experts, provided commentary on expert reports prepared by others and assisted in Counsel’s preparation for cross examination of other experts.

I was involved in what I was advised was the first successful action in Tasmania to secure the Family Court agreement to hear evidence from me as the second expert in a matter. This resulted in the Court hearing evidence from both experts concurrently. I have been involved in subsequent matters in the Family Court where I have been permitted to prepare a report in addition to that of the initially appointed single expert.  

5. Due Diligence and Sale Structuring

I have been engaged to be part of the team which has undertaken feasibility analysis and then due diligence of a business for the purposes of client acquisition.

I have also been engaged to advise on the documentation and structuring of businesses for sale.

These assignments involved business valuation judgements, advice in respect to appropriate structuring of the sale, advice in respect of taxation consequences and assessment of financial information provided by a vendor.

Increasingly in Family Law matters, I have been engaged to identify the taxation consequences of proposed settlements and assisted legal teams in the structure of property settlements.  

6. Professional development presentations

I have been a seminar and conference speaker for a number of industry bodies, including family law and litigation solicitors, in the areas of taxation, GST, business valuation and financial investigation 

I have conducted a number of in-house business valuation and financial management or investigation seminars for legal firms, not for profit organisations and conferences of solicitors as part of their professional development.

A number of my articles on taxation aspects of property investment addressing topics such as GST and capital gains tax have been published by Your Investment Property magazine.

7. Other Assignments

I have prepared a report dealing with the capacity of a party to proceedings to pay court costs should it be unsuccessful. This involved detailed analysis of its published financial reports and forming an understanding of its likely future cash flows.

In 1997 the (then) Australian Securities Commission (ASC) determined that it should have jurisdiction over the operation of trade exchanges. I was engaged by the International Reciprocal Trading Association of Australia (IRTAA) to review the financial aspects of their voluntary code of practice and make representations to the ASC, in the form of a number of reports, to the effect that the voluntary code should be adopted by the regulator. I was accepted by the ASC as an expert on prudential lending policies for trade exchanges and the voluntary code of practice was specified by the ASC as the industry requirement.