A recruitment agency and its managing director have been ordered to pay £10,890 for avoiding their auto-enrolment duties and misleading the Pensions Regulator by falsely claiming staff had been put into a workplace pension.
At Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Hertfordshire-based SKL Professional Recruitment Agency Ltd and managing director Linus Kadzere were sentenced after pleading guilty to charges of wilfully failing to comply with their workplace pension duties and providing false information to TPR.
In a false declaration of compliance, Kadzere told TPR his company - a specialist agency providing workers in the care sector - had automatically enrolled 22 staff.
However, following whistleblowing reports from staff and an investigation by TPR, it emerged that although a pension scheme had been set up, staff had not been enrolled and deducted pension contributions had not been paid into the scheme.
District Judge Teresa Szagun said Kadzere was “reckless” in his approach to his responsibilities and that failure to comply had a detrimental impact "not only for the individuals concerned but for society as a whole".
Darren Ryder, TPR’s director of automatic enrolment, added: “TPR will not stand by if an employer wilfully fails to meet their responsibilities towards their staff - we will take action to make sure workers get the pensions they are due.”
maria.espadinha@ft.com
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