An accountancy firm owned by a property boss who is under investigation for fraud, theft and money laundering appears to have stopped trading.
A J Wheeler’s website stopped working this month and neighbours of its Hove offices said nobody had been seen there for weeks.
When Brighton and Hove News called today, a woman said she worked for the company but that it was no longer trading. There is nothing filed on Companies House to suggest it has gone into liquidation.
The firm was founded by Peter Hewett, who has had property seized as part of a major investigation into money laundering, fraud and theft in connection with another of his firms, PS&B Estate Management.
Hewett was excluded from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 2024, and severely reprimanded last year over allegations of unpaid and/or unfiled taxes.
Mr Hewett previously said the first decision was based on incomplete evidence and was incorrect, and in the second case, it was HMRC who was responsible for unfiled taxes.
His accountancy firm continued to trade, but its website described him as a founder rather than an accountant.
A J Wheeler’s registered address is in Portsmouth, but it also has an office on the English Business Park off Old Shoreham Road in Hove.
Earlier this month, someone from a neighbouring office said they hadn’t seen staff there for some time, and had been answering the door to several clients who were trying to track someone from the company down.
The company’s accounts are up to date on Companies House, which lists Mr Hewett, 58, and his wife Karen Hewett, 58, as directors and joint owners.
Mr Hewett is also the director of Hive Company Secretarial Services Limited, which was originally known as A J Wheeler Company Secretarial Services Limited. His wife Karen is also a director, and the sole owner.
Hive was listed as the company secretary for dozens of freehold management companies when they were clients of PS&B Estate Management.
Mr Hewett is listed as the director of 20 companies, many of them part of the Blue Bombini Group of which PS&B Estate Management was a member and which also include PS&B Auctions, PS&B Lettings, commercial property agent Carr & Priddle, and chartered surveyors C G Spratt, which traded as Spratt and Son, and Lease X.
He has recently also been the director of two companies called Cognatio Residential Property Investments Limited and Cognatio Property Investments Limited.
Companies House records also show Cognatio Residential took out buy to let mortgages out on three houses in Portsmouth last year, which Land Registry records show sold in August and December for a total of £1.39 million.
According to Portsmouth City Council’s planning register, a Mr and Mrs Hewett made applications for two of these in 2018, before the sales to Cognatio Residential.
Its latest accounts, dated 31 May this year, say the company had investment property worth £1.38 million, while owing £935,298.
Last year, Cognation Residential’s ownership was updated on Companies House to make Mrs Hewett the sole owner.
Cognatio Property was the owner of PS&B’s Brighton office on Queens Road until June this year, when it was sold.
In April and May this year, electronic updates to the company’s ownership were made on Companies House in relation to both the Hewetts’ shares. The ownership details now say Mrs Hewett is the sole owner.
