accountant breaking the law?
i know of an accountant who may be breaking the law, they are stealing customers from the firm they used to work for by sending letters out to the customers marketing her new company, how would i go about reporting this and would they listen?
Law & Legal - 5 Answers
People Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
Answer 1 :
How is this illegal? The accountant is not forcing anyone to respond favorably to the letters. It is up to the customer whether he/she transfers his business or not
Answer 2 :
It is fairly common practise with the setting up of new business premises for the person concerned to approach the customers they have been working with. It is not illegal just naughty and not unheard of. Often the persons previous contract would have a distance limit on it on how far way they needed to be if they went off and started another business. Likewise unless it was set in stone on a contract they can get away with contacting previous customers they worked with. It would have to be a complex contract to be able to stop this type of activity.
Answer 3 :
Unless her previous employers contract states this practise is against their policies when quitting etc. as it could be breach of confidential data, if they find out, they may try and kick off but as others have said, it is the customers choice. Customers may not be happy to find their personal data has been stored by an ex employee, I certainly wouldn't but depends if it is protected by the Data Protection Act. http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide.aspx
Answer 4 :
That isn't breaking any law.
Answer 5 :
You seem to be making quite a few assumptions in your question. They are probably not "stealing" anything, though if they stole a list of private client names and addresses they will have breached an implied (and probably an express) term of their old employment. But they could as easily look them up in Yellow Pages or any trade directory! The old employer might get a lawyer's letter drafted to warn them off but there's little in practice that can be done. If the old company is any good they have little to fear. I have seen some send out letters to the clients saying "Mr Smith recently left us and may seek to approach you without authority...." but this risks revealing an issue to those who never knew about it. The accountant's professional body, depending if they are Chartered, Certified or whatever may also have code of conduct covering this, so worth researching that area too. If they could potentially be struck off that would be a big disincentive.
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