The hire giant launched a probe in February after a count-up of its kit revealed a £20.4m stock deficit in smaller site items like scaffolding towers, fencing and non-mechanical plant.

The investigation ruled out fraud and blamed the issues on “problems with the company’s controls and accounting procedures for non-itemised assets over a number of years, and in particular the reconciliation of such counts to the group’s fixed asset register.”

Latest results posted today for the year to March 31 2023 show revenue up to £440.6m from £386.8m while pre-tax profit fell to £1.8m from £29.1m.

Chairman David Shearer said: “In addition to corrective actions and new controls implemented by management, the Board has agreed a remedial plan to further strengthen the financial control environment for managing non-itemised assets and to provide assurance for the relevant accounting values, which remains in progress.”

Chief Executive Dan Evans has also launched a new five year transformation and growth strategy called ‘Velocity’ with a focus on revenue growth and margin improvement.

He said: “We are excited about executing on our new growth strategy, Velocity, which provides clear direction for the business and we expect it to deliver long term benefits to our customers, our people and our investors.

“We have made an encouraging start to FY2024 with a strong pipeline of new customer and project based opportunities.”