Audit firm Grant Thornton has been slapped with a £1.95m fine for ethical failures that involved attempts to conceal evidence of involvement in the audit of the now-collapsed alcohol retailer Conviviality Retail.

The mid-tier accounting firm agreed it had breached several ethical standards, which included failure to maintain its independence during the Conviviality audit and for “firm-wide” ethical failings between 2014 and 2017, the Financial Reporting Council said in a notice on 8 July.