UK regulator fines Sumer’s HW Fisher and auditor over GFG Alliance audit failures

The Financial Reporting Council fined Sumer Group’s HW Fisher £200,000 (reduced to £140,000 after admission) and its lead auditor Simon Mott-Cowan £25,000 (reduced to £17,500) for serious professional failures in the audit of Liberty Commodities, a GFG Alliance subsidiary, for the financial year ending 31 March 2020. The regulator found a pervasive lack of professional scepticism and breaches across seven audit areas, including revenue recognition, debt recoverability and going-concern judgments.

HW Fisher also failed to understand Liberty Commodities’ back-to-back sales model, which depended on supply-chain financing from the scandal-plagued Greensill Capital and Wyelands Bank, both tied to the GFG Alliance. The FRC noted that the auditors ignored obvious risks such as the potential withdrawal of Greensill financing, despite media scrutiny at the time. Simon Mott-Cowan voluntarily retired from audit work at the end of 2025.

The episode highlights how inadequate audit understanding can compromise overall audit quality. Meanwhile, Sumer Group, owned by private-equity firm Penta Capital Partners, recently attracted a valuation-over-£1 billion investment led by TPG.