Three Charged in £14 Million Pension Scam That Had Hundreds of Victims

Two men and a woman have been charged with fraud for swindling 245 people out of £13.7 million worth of pension savings.

The trio was charged in London on May 11 following an investigation by The Pensions Regulator – the U.K.’s national pensions regulator, Law360 reports.

Alan Barratt, Julian Hanson, and Susan Dalton appeared in Southwark Crown Court in south London, facing charges of fraud by abuse of position for allegedly getting people to transfer their pension savings into one of 11 pension schemes the trio controlled. The charges are for offenses between 2012 and 2014.

Barratt, 61, and Hanson, 56, both pleaded not guilty to all charges and will stand trial on June 13 at Southwark Crown Court, Law360 reports. Dalton, 65, had entered a guilty plea at a previous hearing. The three were all released on bail ahead of their next court appearances.

According to Law360, recently The Pensions Regulator has stepped up enforcement of suspected pension scams. In February, the regulators Executive Director Nicola Parish said that the agency was investigating 38 people who had allegedly scammed victims out of £55 million in pension savings. Later this year, changes in the Pension Schemes Act 2021 will give the regulator increased power to punish pension plan bosses, Law360 reports.

Since 2017, pension scams have caused the loss of an estimated £31 million, but the definite number could be higher, Reuters reported last August. Underreporting of the pension scams is likely because many victims do not know they have been scammed, nor do they know the exact figure they have in their pensions before or after they have been scammed.

Reuters reported that pension scams range in loss from less than £1,000 to £500,000, according to Action Fraud. The average victims of pension scams are men in their 50s.

Five years ago, pension rules were eased, and the relaxed rules created an environment for potential fraud. The pension scam problem may have gotten worse during the pandemic.

In March, a parliamentary committee report in the U.S. said that tech giants Google and Facebook were making money off the pension scam industry by showing ads on their platforms placed by fraudsters.

Have you ever been contacted by someone about your pension that you suspect was a scammer? Let us know in the comments section!

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