Baldwins launches forensic accounting office in Wolverhampton

Forensic accounting services include quantifying damages in civil litigation cases and valuing businesses on divorce, through to investigating alleged criminal activity such as fraud.

To meet demand, Walsall-based Baldwins is recruiting forensic accounting specialists for the service at the firm's offices on Union Street in Wolverhampton, Lichfield Street in Walsall, Rumer Hill Road in Cannock, and New Road in Stourbridge.

James Hamilton, director at Baldwins in Wolverhampton, said: “The Baldwins forensic team is already receiving at least one enquiry a day, and as awareness spreads locally, we anticipate further demand.

“We know that these services are particularly attractive to local solicitors and businesses who need help with financial investigations, so key to us growing this service is establishing a physical presence in areas such as Wolverhampton that has a strong legal market.

“This service is about trying to save on litigation costs by presenting credible financial evidence that avoids cases having to go to court – currently only five per cent of the cases we deal with do go to court.

“This spells fantastic news for the region as a whole, as quality forensic accountants help businesses and individuals to save time and costs by presenting credible assessments in relation to any commercial or family disputes.”

Baldwins directors David Owens, James Hamilton and Tanya Wilson are overseeing the expansion of forensic accounting across the Baldwins Accountancy Group, which is one of the UK’s leading business service groups and is a CogitalGroup company. Currently, CogitalGroup has 4,700 people operating from 150 offices in seven countries, with revenue in excess of £320 million.

Tanya said: “The advantage of Baldwins expanding across the UK is that we can identify successful differentiating services, such as forensic accounting, and spread this into the different communities where we operate.

“Unlike most other accountancy practices with a genuine focus on entrepreneur led businesses, we are fortunate enough to already have an experienced forensic team in place, and over the next few years with additional recruitment, the aim is to become one of the largest regional providers of forensic accounting services in the UK.”