The disgraced former president of the Association of Taxation Technicians, Andrew Meeson, has been imprisoned for eight and a half years after being found guilty of a £5 million pension tax fraud.
Meeson has now also been linked with two alleged pension liberation schemes.
Pension liberation is an increasingly controversial way for savers to access their pension pots before they are legitimately entitled to, and the company offering the service usually charges high fees for arranging access to the cash.
In addition, anyone liberating their pension pot usually faces a tax bill from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as well as seeing their savings decimated.
Meeson, and business partner Peter Bradley, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court where Bradley’s wife Alison was found not guilty of conspiracy to cheat HMRC.
Pension investigations
Now, it has been revealed that The Pensions Regulator (TPR) investigated two alleged pension liberation schemes which were being run by Meeson and the Bradleys.
After their arrest, TPR suspended their company, Tudor Capital Management, which was controlled by the trio, from acting as trustees to pension schemes.
One such scheme was the Hollywell Enterprises Pension Scheme which had been registered with HMRC in June 2011.
When Elizabeth Vargo and Desmond Murray, trustees of the scheme, tried to move £2 million in scheme assets to a company in Belize, TPR stepped in to remove them as trustees.
A subsequent TPR investigation revealed that the scheme’s members had signed up after being promised a loan against their pension assets.
It has also been revealed that Meeson and the Bradleys are registered as directors of T12 administration, which administers the Pennines and Mendip Retirement Benefit Schemes.
High Court action
Again TPR stepped in to remove trustees John Woodward and Jennifer Ilett in March 2012 and in their place they appointed Dalriada Trustees to run the scheme instead.
The result of this was for Dalriada to take High Court action against the scheme’s former trustees and three other companies: Hedge Capital Investments Ltd, Hedge Capital Investment Group Plc and Hedge Capital Ltd.
The legal action is a bid to recover £18 million of assets from the alleged pension liberation scheme.
Dalriada has also revealed that T12 was charging £500 to each of their members’ pension pots every year when the usual charge for administering a fund is between £41 and £107.
Financial watchdogs, and the Serious Fraud Office, are taking a closer look at companies offering pension liberation schemes which target hard-up savers to gain access to their pension funds before the age of 55.
