On the go: A Lancashire accountant has pleaded guilty to fraud after transferring more than £280,000 out of a pension scheme on which he was a trustee.
Roger William Bessent, 66, who also acted as the administrator of the Focusplay Retirement Benefit Scheme, funnelled the money into his own business and into personal investments after forging official minutes and records of the plan.
By falsely listing other trustees of the scheme as present and converting transfers into loans, he was able to fund the purchase of a buy-to-let house worth more than £120,000, which was eventually used to house his daughter and her partner.
Stolen pension monies were also used to pay tax bills for Gleeson Bessent, the accountancy business of which Mr Bessent was a director, a client's company, to prop up a children's nursery and to fund his son-in-law's physiotherapy business start-up.
Mr Bessent, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to five counts of fraud by abuse of position and two counts of employer-related investments by way of prohibited loans.
The Pensions Regulator will ask for three further counts of employer-related investments to be left to lie on file, while the Insolvency Service successfully prosecuted Mr Bessent for breaching a 2017 ban on being the director of a company.
It is the first time the regulator has prosecuted someone for either fraud by abuse of position or employer-related investments.
Nicola Parish, TPR’s executive director of front-line regulation, said: “Mr Bessent used the pension scheme as his personal piggy bank, transferring out hundreds of thousands of pounds for his own personal benefit and to keep his other businesses going.
“As an accountant, Mr Bessent was someone that people would turn to for advice and put their trust in. He abused that trust and used his position as trustee to defraud the scheme for his benefit and the benefit of his friends and family.”
She added: “Trustees play a vital role in protecting the benefits of members. We will not tolerate the abuse of such an important job.”
Mr Bessent, whose business is based at Navigation Business Village, Navigation Way, Ashton on Ribble, Preston, Lancashire, will be sentenced on March 29.
