Troubled housebuilder completes second fundraising as it hires forensic accountants

Inland Homes has raised an extra £2.5m to meet its working capital needs and drafted in a forensic accountancy firm to probe the “related party issues” that have prevented it from filing its accounts on time.

The troubled housebuilder, whose shares have been suspended as a result of not filing its accounts on time, announced the completion of the latest fundraising this morning, with the funding used to meet its “working capital requirements”.

This is on top of a previous £2.5m raised solely from company founder Stephen Wicks last month. It is not clear if Wicks is also the sole purchaser of the latest shares.

The firm also announced this week that it has drafted in forensic accountancy firm FRP Advisory to carry out an independent probe into the ‘related party issues’ that meant it could not publish its accounts before 31 March. The audit of the company, overseen by PWC is expected to complete in June.

The fundraising is the latest chapter in a torrid period for the £182m-turnover regeneration specialist. Last September it warned that it would make a loss of around £37m for the year. Then in January it revealed this figure had ballooned to more than £90m.

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Wicks announced his retirement last September following the profit warning but his replacement, former Galliard boss Don O’Sullivan, quit in January just over a month into the job.

Wicks then made a shock return to the board of the housebuilder, after chair Simon Bennett and board members Carol Duncomb and Brian Johnson, formerly the boss of housing association Metropolitan, resigned following the “related party issues.