Firm’s 10-year mistake

INVESTMENT giant Hargreaves Lansdown has called an emergency meeting after an embarrassing mistake on dividend payouts.

It said it had committed a technical breach of the UK Companies Act by failing to file interim accounts with the authorities before payments were announced.

It has made the mistake every year since its float in 2007, meaning billions of pounds of dividends were incorrectly reported.

Much of that went to founders Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown.

Bosses have called a shareholder vote so investors can agree that dividends do not have to be repaid.

The error, picked up in a random audit by the Financial Reporting Council, has been made by others, including retail giant Next.