Meet the Team

Geoff Miles FCA - Partner

geoff.miles@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Geoff has 40 years experience of working with owner managed businesses, charities and associations, and individual taxpayers.   During more than 20 years as a partner in a medium sized City practice, his additional roles included acting as a charity trustee and providing forensic accounting expertise, and giving evidence as an expert witness, in litigation cases.

In 2001 he formed Hammonds Chartrered Accountants to act for businesses in Beckenham, Bromley, Croydon, Kent and London.  Since then the practice has gone from strength to strength, helping its clients not only in accounting and taxation matters, but also in business development and planning, profit improvement and wealth management.

Helen Atack BSc ACA - Senior Client and Audit Manager

helen.atack@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Helen has been working at Hammonds since 2003, having previously worked for a medium sized practice in Guildford and a medium sized City practice.  She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1995, coming 7^th in the South East in her final exams.   Helen is experienced in numerous accounting roles, including audit of charities and Lloyds of London syndicates, working with owner managed businesses and technical advice.

In her current role, Helen is responsible for a portfolio of clients ranging from sole traders to substantial businesses with an audit requirement, helping them in connection with their accounting, taxation and commercial requirements.

Helen enjoys the ethos of Hammonds, providing professional accounting and business development services in a helpful, approachable and friendly manner.

Claire Vickers - Client Manager

claire.vickers@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Claire joined Hammonds in 2005.   Prior to that she gained significant experience in merchant banking, shipping, insolvency, and e-commerce, and worked for one of the largest City practices.

Since working in general practice Claire has helped several of our clients to streamline their administration, helping them to save valuable time.

She is responsible for a portfolio of owner managed businesses, dealing with their accounting, taxation and other compliance requirements.   Claire system tests and provides training on various software products including Sage and the firm's free bookkeeping software.   She has first hand experience of running an e-commerce business as she runs her own web based business.

Joanne Bell - Accounts Assistant

joanne.bell@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

The youngest member of the Hammonds team, Joanne has always been passionate about numbers. As an 'A' Grade maths student she chose to pursue a career in accountancy and has gained experience in all aspects of compliance.

She helps clients with bookkeeping, VAT returns, management and annual accounts, and tax returns.   She is also responsible for managing the fee protection service we offer clients to cover the cost of Revenue investigations.

She's a whizz with computer packages and is really keen to see Hammonds grow their client base, so she also spends some of her time marketing the practice's services to new clients.

Jacqui Bennett ACA - Company Secretarial and Administration

jacqui.bennett@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Jacqui qualified as a Chartered Accountant with a medium-sized City practice. She spent several years involved in audits of companies within the insurance sector, finally specialising for several years in the audit of Underwriting Syndicates at Lloyd's.

After an extended career break to raise her two daughters she decided to return to the profession and joined Hammonds in 2004.

At Hammonds Jacqui deals with client company secretarial matters and client and office administration.

Loraine Williams - Payroll Manager

loraine.williams@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Loraine is an SMPA, which is Supervisory Member of Payroll Alliance. This is part of the Payroll Manager's Diploma.     She has worked in payroll for 19 years, and her payroll experience has been mainly client payroll, where she has looked after multi-company payrolls, ranging from large corporations to small-medium sized businesses.

She has also looked after in-house payroll, in the investment banking arena, managing payrolls of up to 8,500 employees.  She has been in payroll management for 15 years, and has trained payroll personnel, and managed small-medium teams of staff.

Loraine runs our payroll bureau, ensuring that our clients' payroll needs are met and technical questions are dealt with, and provides a help line to those clients who run their own payrolls.

Our Associates

Glen Vaughan ATT CTA - Taxation Consultant

info@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Glen is a Chartered Tax Advisor and has 35 years taxation experience, initially training with the Revenue, then working in various Top 20 City accountants, before forming his own specialist taxation consultancy in 2002.

His expertise covers income tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax, inheritance tax, UK and overseas trusts, and dealing with Inland Revenue investigations.

His approach is a pro-active one, including planning to reduce taxation liabilities and to increase clients' wealth.

Jo Stickings - Business Development Manager

info@hammondsaccountants.co.uk

Jo began her career in the media industry in the late 1980s, specialising in the marketing, sales, client service and commercial functions.

Jo successfully transformed one business from an annual turnover of £3 million to a turnover in excess of £30 million, and then went on to project manage the sale of a £13 million turnover organisation.

She now assists business owners by giving them a benchmark of where their business is now, in which direction it is heading and the measurement tools to know when it has arrived. It enables them to introduce ideas that will transform their businesses, whilst at the same time giving them the tools to implement that transformation in achievable steps, by working with them to develop a series of strategies that fulfil their overall objectives.