Speedy Hire has ruled out fraud after its investigation into the disappearance of equipment worth over £20m concluded.
The Newton-le-Willows-headquartered company first discovered the loss following a count of its hire equipment before its 2023 audit.
At the time, the business said that the loss is expected to result in a one-off, non-cash write down of its balance sheet of non-itemised assets for the year to March 31, 2023.
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Now, Speedy Hire has concluded its investigation and revealed the reason behind the disappearance.
In an update to the London Stock Exchange, the business confirmed the "issue resulted from problems with the company's controls and accounting procedures for non-itemised assets over a number of years, and in particular the reconciliation of such counts to the group's fixed asset register".
It added that the issue was "not the result of underlying systemic fraud perpetrated on the company by its staff or third parties"
Speedy Hire said: "In addition to corrective action and new controls implemented by management, the board has agreed a remedial plan to further strengthen the financial control environment for managing non-itemised assets and provide assurance for the relevant accounting values.
"This includes additional counts of the assets and new procedures for reconciling those against its fixed asset register."
The update comes after Speedy Hire revealed it had been hit by a "softening of demand" in recent weeks as a result of the "continuing challenging trading environment".
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