Now Lougher, who owns Whakat\u0101ne accountancy firm Calc, has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay costs and expenses of $21,681.41.<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing\u2019<\/p>\n
Lougher, a 2022 Te Moana-a-Toi Bay of Plenty Kiwibank Local Hero medalist, was the accountant for a couple who were selling their gym franchise in the Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n
The complainant, who worked in two different gyms, heard that one of the franchises was for sale and commented to the franchise owner in early 2021 that she would \u201clove to own a gym one day\u201d.<\/p>\n
In its recently released decision, the disciplinary tribunal stated that soon after, the woman received a phone call from Lougher advising that it might be possible for her and her husband to buy the gym.<\/p>\n
Neither the woman nor her husband had any business experience, but Lougher said he would help her through and assist her with the books, wages, GST and other matters.<\/p>\n
Over the following months, Lougher obtained finance for the couple through his contacts with a bank and mortgage broker.<\/p>\n
Apart from a video call to explain the loan terms and to sign documents, the complainants had no contact with the bank and broker.<\/p>\n
Most of the arranging was done by Lougher.<\/p>\n
He also provided them with management accounts that he had prepared for the vendor company, however the woman did not understand them, and Lougher did not explain them.<\/p>\n
Lougher then got the woman to sign a confidentiality agreement in favour of both the vendor and his firm.<\/p>\n
Although the couple knew he was the vendor\u2019s accountant, he never raised that with them, nor did he take any steps to manage the conflict or recommend that they seek independent advice.<\/p>\n
In July 2021, he set up a company for the couple to purchase and operate the business without explaining the reasons, pros, or cons of a company structure.<\/p>\n
When the woman expressed doubts, including \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing, I have no idea\u201d, Lougher encouraged her saying \u201cwe will get you there\u201d, and \u201cwelcome to being a business owner, this is all part of it\u201d.<\/p>\n
The agreement was signed in August 2021 with a price of $565,000, $484,500 of which was a goodwill loan.<\/p>\n
The complainants had no money to put in and instead had to borrow money from the woman\u2019s parents and arrange an overdraft after their lawyer noted they had no financial buffer to fall back on.<\/p>\n
Although it initially traded well, by mid-2024, the couple faced financial strife.<\/p>\n
The woman had not paid herself a wage in three years and couldn\u2019t pay the franchise fees.<\/p>\n
It was acknowledged by the couple that there were \u201ca range of external factors\u201d that detrimentally affected the business.<\/p>\n
Despite rebranding and developing an alternative business plan, the business didn\u2019t recover and closed a year later.<\/p>\n
In his response to the couple\u2019s complaint, Lougher criticised their 2024 restructure, stating that \u201cthis raised serious concerns about the complainants\u2019 integrity and willingness to engage ethically in commercial matters\u201d.<\/p>\n
Calc chartered accountancy firm owner, Jason Lougher. Photo \/ Alan Gibson<\/p>\n
The couple were \u201cunderstandably offended by this attack on their integrity, especially as they had acted on legal advice\u201d, the tribunal said in its decision.<\/p>\n
\u2018Should have been alert from the outset\u2019<\/p>\n
The tribunal ruled that Lougher was advising, assisting, and \u201cindeed encouraging\u201d, the complainants in their purchase, who were heavily reliant on his expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should have received objective, independent advice and guidance, which [Lougher] clearly did not provide and could not have, given his connection with the vendor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple were vulnerable, given their lack of business experience and their financial situation.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Lougher] should have been alert to the conflict from the outset.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so blindingly obvious that his failure to identify such an elementary point was a clear breach of fundamental professional standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe confidentiality agreement was a further clear signal that he was in no position to independently advise the complainants and assist them with the due diligence they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lougher\u2019s enthusiasm for the sale to go ahead \u201cclouded his judgment and objectivity\u201d.<\/p>\n
The second charge related to Lougher\u2019s response and amounted to \u201cunbecoming\u201d conduct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tribunal finds that [Lougher\u2019s] conduct involved a substantial failure to observe proper standards of professionalism in both objectivity and professional behaviour, to such a degree as to amount to conduct unbecoming.\u201d<\/p>\n
In sanctioning Lougher, the tribunal also took into account Lougher\u2019s other unblemished record, accepting responsibility, undertaking voluntary ethics training, and the several references attesting to his personal and professional character.<\/p>\n
Lougher was also directed to undertake three micro-courses focusing on conflict of interest, essentials of the code, and professionals in practice, and update his firm\u2019s system of quality management manual by the time of his next practice review.<\/p>\n
Although the NZICA did not issue a suspension on Lougher\u2019s Certificate of Public Practice [CPP] or his membership, it did order he consider updating his conflict of interest policies.<\/p>\n
He declined to comment when approached by NZME.<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now Lougher, who owns Whakat\u0101ne accountancy firm Calc, has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay costs and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11306,74,1558,138,27081,34749,6150,6131,12513,14744,30538,12469,29819,29116,215194,111,139,69,1118,24684,1133,215195,213,215197,215198,2240,6123,215196,102],"class_list":["post-419015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-accountant","tag-after","tag-been","tag-business","tag-chartered","tag-conduct","tag-conflict","tag-declare","tag-failed","tag-gym","tag-helping","tag-interest","tag-involving","tag-jason","tag-loughers","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-ruled","tag-sale","tag-selfproclaimed","tag-sports","tag-unbecoming","tag-unprofessional","tag-whakatne","tag-while","tag-whisperer","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}