Accounting ban for trainee who ‘upskirted’ three times

A TRAINEE accountant who worked at Pricewaterhousecoopers was caught upskirting a young woman while awaiting sentencing for the same offence.

Leon Chan, 27, was convicted of filming up women’s skirts after being caught on CCTV in central London in 2019, a disciplinary hearing was told. While awaiting sentencing, he was caught upskirting another female in Sheffield, south Yorkshire.

After he was given a suspended sentence, he upskirted a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Surrey in October 2020. He was jailed for 20 months.

Now a disciplinary panel has banned him from the accounting profession for two years. It has ruled that since Mr Chan was a trainee and not fully registered, he could not be struck off but he has been banned from re-registering for two years.

His first offence was on New Year’s Day 2019 while training at Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC), the hearing was told. Mr Chan, who holds a first-class degree in economics from Leeds University, was caught on CCTV following and upskirting women in Topshop in Oxford Street, central London.

After pleading guilty at Westminster magistrates’ court to outraging public decency, he was convicted and reported to PWC, which fired him. He moved back to his home town of Sheffield, where he reoffended in a shop while on bail.

Again he was caught “bending down behind a young female” to take photos/ videos, the hearing was told. He received a suspended sentence of eight months. But on October 1 2020, he breached his suspended sentence by upskirting a 17-year-old girl in Surrey. She was travelling home on the train in her school uniform.

He pleaded guilty and in March 2021 was jailed.