Slater & Gordon slumps

SHARES in law firm Slater and Gordon have plummeted another 25 per cent as investors dump the stock over problems with its accounts.

The company yesterday shocked the market with the admission it had made mistakes in the reporting of cash receipts from its UK business going back to the 2011- 12 financial year.

Slater and Gordon, the world’s first publicly listed law firm, found the mistakes as part of a detailed analysis of its financial information, which will be provided to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Its shares plunged by $ 1.26 to close at $ 3.78, their lowest point since November 2013. The company’s share price has more than halved since April.

The stock dived 20 per cent last Thursday as UK authorities launched an inquiry into the accounts of Quindell, which sold its professional services division to Slater and Gordon for $ 1.2 billion in March.

The company launched its own analysis after ASIC confirmed it had questions to raise directly with the law firm as part of its review of Pitcher Partners’ auditing of its accounts.

In a statement yesterday, Slater and Gordon said that its UK operations reported receipts from customers on a gross, rather than net, basis from the 2011- 12 financial year to the end of the first half of the 2013- 14 financial year.