A SOUTH Hams accountancy firm now in liquidation has been given a ‘severe reprimand’ and fined by its ­supervisory body.

MG Associates Ltd, which operated from offices in Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Torquay and Cawsands in Cornwall, was found to have breached the regulations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

An ICAEW disciplinary committee was told that the firm, which was run by husband and wife Michael Ghersie and Marlene Baylis, had failed to ensure Ms Baylis held audit ­affiliate status following her appointment as a director on November 19, 2010, and that the firm had also failed to include Ms Baylis as a director on the firm’s 2011, 2012 and 2013 annual returns.

The firm was fined £6,350 and ordered to pay £8,000 costs.

Ms Baylis, now 62, resigned her directorship in November 2015 and MG Associates Ltd went into administration earlier this year, owing hundreds of thousands of pounds after the firm was involved in a long-running legal ­battle with the ­former owner of the Dartmouth business, David Beeny.

At the time, Mr Ghersie, 65, was the sole director. Ms Baylis’s company, MG Accountants Ltd, bought the firm after it was advertised for sale by Newton Abbot insolvency practitioners Lameys, and it ­continues to operate from premises in Torquay, Kingsbridge and Cawsands, trading under the name MG Associates.

Earlier this year a spokesman for Lameys said: ‘Over recent years, MG Associates Ltd has been involved in extensive litigation. The recent judgment left MG Associates Ltd with a liability, which it could not pay.

‘The business was marketed before the administration and the best offer was received from a company connected to the director.

‘The business has therefore been sold to MG Accountants Ltd, which is a company owned and controlled by the director’s wife [Ms Baylis]. As a result, the management and staff will remain unchanged and the business’s customers should experience almost no disruption to the service they receive. Contact numbers and personnel have not changed.

‘The only significant change is that the business has ceased trading from one of its offices. The Dartmouth office workload will now be administered from the Kingsbridge office.’

Mr Ghersie, of Marldon Road, Paignton, was recently made subject to a bankruptcy order, according to the Insolvency Service.

Ms Baylis said on Thursday morning that, while she was listed by Companies House as a director of MG Associates Ltd, she did not run the company with her husband but was merely an employee.Mr Ghersie said on Thursday morning, with regard to the ICAEW ruling: 'At the request of the bank, Ms Baylis was appointed a director of the company in 2010. 'At the time I did not know that non-accountants could not be directors of ICAEW registered firms. 'Despite reviews in 2012 and 2013 by the ICAEW’s Practice Support Services of MG Associates Ltd - now in liquidation – neither reviewer brought this to my attention either. It seems it is an easy mistake to make.'Story updated with quotes from Ms Baylis and Mr Ghersie