An ex-KPMG junior accused of misleading inspectors looking into the firm’s 2016 audit of Carillion said his two-and-a-half year suspension from the firm left him “depressed” and feeling like his life was in “lockdown”.

Pratik Paw was a 25-year-old junior auditor at the time of the 2017 inspection of the firm’s Carillion audit by a team from watchdog the Financial Reporting Council.