Retirement

Pension Liberation Firms Closed By High Court

The trustees responsible for the day-to-day running of two notorious pension liberation schemes have been wound up in the public interest after an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Omni Trustees and Imperial Trustee Services administered the Henley benefit retirement Scheme and Capita Oak Pension Scheme.

The inquiry revealed both pension schemes were involved with other companies in a systematic fraud based aimed at persuading them to transfer their pensions away from their existing workplace schemes.

Retirement savers were contacted by cold calls by email, text and telephone by sales teams and were told they could make higher returns than their existing scheme offered, would be paid 25% of their pension fund tax-free when they were 55 years old and in the case of the Capita scheme, that a non-repayable loan of 5% of the transfer fund value would be paid as well.

Lack of control

However, rather than offering diversified investment options, all the money invested by the trustees went to Store First Ltd, a self-storage company.

Almost half the money invested in Store First was then paid as commission to another company.

In total, both pension schemes invested £13.4 million in storage units, while the Henley scheme transferred £3.7 million to another pension scheme which now cannot be traced, said the Insolvency Service.

The High Court was told that trustees should have managed both pension schemes responsibly, but instead showed no control.

Omni had no director after October 2014 and the Insolvency Service has no clear evidence to show who was in control of the Henley scheme.

Investment warning

Fees of £1.4 million were paid to various people and companies relating to managing the pension funds, but no one appears to have taken any action to protect or control investor cash.

The court was also told a ‘guaranteed’ 8% a year return on investment promised by sales staff had not been achieved by either scheme and £1.6 million in cash is missing.

Scott Crighton, Group Leader with Company Investigations North said: “These companies have deliberately misled investors and not acted in the public interest.

“People should protect themselves against these businesses who cold call and offer a free pension review to get their foot ion the door in order to try and steal pensions.

“Many people have lost their retirement savings as a result of these companies.

“Our advice is if you receive offers like this, ignoring them is the safest course of action.”

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