Healthcare Locum, a firm specilizing in suppling healthcare staff and social workers to public and private-sector clients, announced the suspension of executive vice-chairman and founder Kate Bleasdale and chief financial officer Diane Jarvis, amidst discoveries of accounting irregularities.
The company said that “Serious accounting irregularities have been brought to the attention of the board as a result of which the company will be carrying out an immediate investigation to consider the financial implications.” It further stated that it had “strong reason to believe” profits for 2010 would be “materially below market expectations”, about £22 million, after the irregularities were uncovered internally.
Shareholders suffered last year due to poor perfomance of the company and have taken a further 25% hit since the business reported weak first-half results in September. This news is sure to increase the suffering of the shareholders.