“My husband and I engaged an accountant to do a tax return for us because we had a tax-free overseas income and expected a large tax bill. Unprompted, the Accountant recommended that we invest in a forestry plantation scheme as a way of avoiding tax. He showed us a brochure and spent some time talking to us about the reliability of the scheme and the various benefits of it.

We decided to go ahead because we trusted our accountant to firstly know what he’s doing and secondly to look after our interests.

I think it was about seven years later that we realised there was a problem with the investment. There had been a number of issues relating to the trees themselves as well as the prospects of selling them for a profit. Eventually, the scheme was liquidated, and we lost everything.

We never had any contact from Craig X, the accountant who recommended the scheme. He has never contacted us about it.

I believe we made the investment only because we trusted the judgement of our accountant – we had never considered this type of investment before.

It was so frustrating! Some investors went to court to try and get some of their money back. We were asked to support it financially, which we did. A great deal of time, effort, stress and money went into that court case, but it was fruitless. The money was gone. I wish I knew back then what I now know now about my legal options when you get bad advice.

I realise now that Craig X was likely receiving a commission from the forestry scheme. Clearly there was a conflict of interest here and we were the losers.

I would be very reluctant to trust the advice of an accountant again and I think it damages the reputation of the whole industry”.

Hazel’s story is only too familiar.  Solvers asked Hazel why she didn’t take legal action against the Accountant.  “You can do that?”

Yes, you can – call Solvers to find out how.