On the go: A defendant charged with participating in a multimillion-pound pension fraud has changed his plea to guilty at a hearing.
The Pensions Regulator alleges that between 2012 and 2014, some 245 savers were persuaded to transfer their pension savings, totalling £13.7m, into 11 schemes managed by three defendants — Alan Barratt, Julian Hanson and Susan Dalton.
Barratt entered a not guilty plea last year to a charge of fraud by abuse of position. The defendant was arrested in Alicante, Spain and extradited to the UK under a European arrest warrant.
The arrest marked the first time TPR has worked with the police to extradite a pension fraud suspect.
At Southwark Crown Court on Friday, Barratt changed his plea to guilty. Co-defendant Susan Dalton pleaded guilty at a hearing in April last year, while Julian Hanson pleaded not guilty. He will stand trial in June.
While the regulator has warned that new powers afforded to it by the Pension Schemes Act will harden punishments for criminal behaviour, pension scams remain a scourge to savers and the industry.
In the first five months of last year, around £2.2m had been lost to pension scammers, according to Action Fraud data cited by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The average loss stood at £50,949 — more than double the £23,689 lost on average in 2020.
