PwC has been hit with the second highest set of penalties against an accountancy firm in UK history for audit failures linked to the 1999 collapse of TransTec.

TransTec, an engineering business formerly owned by Geoffrey Robinson, the Labour MP, failed in the wake of an accounting fraud. Coopers & Lybrand, a predecessor of PwC, was TransTec’s auditor and failed to probe irregularities in the group’s accounts.