An early‑career staff member at EY was disciplined by the main Australia‑New Zealand chartered accounting body after repeatedly using a mobile phone during professional exams and then failing to be upfront about it. The case emerges as the organisation, which represents about 140,000 members, confronts a legacy of widespread exam misconduct stretching back years and appears determined to show regulators and the public that it is no longer taking a light‑touch approach.
According to the disciplinary findings, the EY provisional accountant first breached the rules in a 2023 exam for a core training module, where using a mobile phone was explicitly banned. Initially he tried to explain his behaviour as legitimate exam activity, but investigators later produced screenshots showing him accessing study material on his phone. His mark for that subject was cancelled in March 2024, yet he went on to repeat the same behaviour in a follow up exam in June, again accessing notes on his device and again acknowledging responsibility only after being confronted. The conduct was ultimately assessed in mid 2025 as serious, aggravated by the misleading responses given to the academic integrity officers and misconduct panel, and resulted in a fine of almost $6000 and a suspension of his membership and program participation until 2027.
This episode plays out against a broader clean up effort in the profession. The chartered accounting body has introduced tougher bylaws over 2024 and 2025 that expand its disciplinary powers, lift maximum fines and allow investigations into former members, responding to criticism that earlier sanctions were too soft after a major firm was found to have more than 1100 staff and partners involved in internal exam cheating between 2016 and 2020 and was later fined by the United States audit regulator. In the past financial year another large firm reported 28 people for using artificial intelligence tools to gain an unfair edge in internal tests, including a partner who received a $10,000 internal penalty, while the professional body says it received almost 200 self disclosures from members disciplined by employers for cheating between 2016 and 2019.
Viewed together, the EY case and the wave of self reported breaches suggest the profession is still working through long running weaknesses in academic integrity even as it appears that the main accounting body is now moving to enforce higher standards. Stricter penalties and wider investigative powers may reassure regulators and clients that cheating is no longer being brushed aside, but they also highlight how dependent the profession is on trust, personal honesty and robust systems at a time when new technologies such as AI make cutting corners easier than ever and the reputational stakes for firms and members keep rising.
