The Pensions Regulator (TPR) wants to use the punishment applied against four pension scammers who were ordered to repay £13.7m as a standard for prosecutors to apply in future cases.
Anthony Raymond, executive director of regulatory policy at the regulator, speaking today (22 May) at the Association of Member-Directed Pension Schemes (Amps) conference in London, said the watchdog is considering referring the case to the director of public prosecutions, “which will continue to take similar action in relation to other cases”.
The director of public prosecutions is the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), with personal responsibility for approximately 800,000 prosecutions undertaken by it every year.
In January, the High Court ordered four people who ran a series of pension scams to repay £13.7m over a two-year period.
The fraudsters obtained the money after 245 members of the public were persuaded, via cold-calling and similar techniques, to transfer their pension savings into one of 11 scam schemes operated by Friendly Pensions Limited (FPL).
This is the first time such order has been obtained, TPR said at the time.
Mr Raymond said: “The order was important, it showed the High Court agreed it was important to separate the scammers from the money they owed.
“It paved the way for the assets of scammers to be seized and sent a clear message that we will go after scammers that target pension holders.”
According to the chair of the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA), Margaret Snowdon, pension savers have lost more than £1bn to scams.
TPR has admitted it may never be able to identify the scale of pension scams.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
