ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the impact of a small minority of practitioners who comprised an internal menace to the association members who resorted to crime and misconduct. It examines the interfaces between contemporary culture and professional (mis)behaviour in a different time and locale. Given that the principal organisational model emulated by the public accountants in Edinburgh was the local legal profession, the absence from the early Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE) rule book of any codified provisions relating to misconduct, is perhaps, surprising. Despite the absence of written rules relating to the misconduct and discipline of its members, the SAE was not devoid of mechanisms to prevent the tarnishing of its organisational status through the dishonourable behaviour of a chartered accountants (CA). The public allegations of illicit behaviour by Donald Peddie came to the attention of the office bearers of the SAE via the printed media.
