Page 21 - Auditors Article

Dunckley commented to the BEIS: “If people are colluding and

there is a sophisticated fraud that may not be caught by
normal audit procedures.” [House of Commons Library]

Given the size of the company and the amount of

misstatement of the accounts it is unlikely that the

perpetrators of the fraud could have achieved the levels of
misstatement in a short period of time. It is more likely that it

took between one and two years. This alone, questions the

professionalism of the auditors in carrying out their duties.

On 16 January 2019, Patisserie Valerie provided a company
update announcing that:

“The work carried out by the Company’s forensic accountants

since [10th October 2018] has revealed that the misstatement
of its accounts was extensive, involving very significant

manipulation of the balance sheet and profit and loss

accounts. Among other manipulations, this involved

thousands of false entries into the Company’s ledgers.”