Baltimore red-faced over bumbled revenues

Shares in Baltimore Technologies fell yesterday after it emerged the troubled security firm had overstated revenues for most of last year and Q1 2001.

The company said that revenues for 2000 had been overstated by 5.5 per cent, while Q1 figures were adjusted down by 3.4 per cent.

The mistake was made when some sales made to distributors on a sale-or-return basis had been incorrectly marked as revenue, The Times reports.

The company said the overstatement was the direct result of sales employees in Africa, India and the Middle East who had left the company before the errors came to light last month.

Paul Sanders, CFO and acting CEO at Baltimore, said the news would have no effect on Q2 predictions.