Tag: Ark pension scam

FCA Investigates Ark and AES
The FCA seems to have woken up. It only took eleven years. Eleven years of laziness, torpor, disinterest and deliberately ignoring the problem. But, completely out of the blue, the FCA has suddenly got bored with crapping on bathroom floors and has decided to do a spot of rather belated regulating.

The object of this sudden fit of uncharacteristic activity, is the Ark pension scam. This was operated between 2010 and 2011 by a team of scammers. This team included so-called financial advisers, introducers, a pensions lawyer and an accountant. The principal architect of the six Ark schemes, however, was Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions in Spain. His Spanish firm specialised in (pretty much what it said on the tin) pensions. In particular pension transfers.

Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions

From August 2010, Ward’s company Premier Pension Solutions (PPS) was run as an agent of AES Financial Services – which was regulated by the FSA (now the FCA). Before this, Ward’s company was in the Inter-Alliance network in Cyprus. Coincidentally, the “sister” firm Continental Wealth Management (CWM) was also a member of the Inter-Alliance network. PPS and CWM worked together in close collaboration. CWM often did the cold calling and warm up act for Ward’s various pension scams – including the New Zealand Evergreen liberation scam.

An agency agreement was in place between Ward’s firm PPS and Sam Instone’s firm AES. But the agreement specifically excluded pension transfers. Which was pretty odd, bearing in mind pension transfers were PPS’ main activity. This resulted in Ward’s firm giving victims the false impression that the pension advice he provided was regulated. Which, of course, it wasn’t. The exclusion in the agency agreement between PPS and AES was, naturally, hidden from clients and victims.

Complaints directed at Ward about the various pension scams he had been operating over the years were always firmly rebutted. Ward always claimed that his own activities were the responsibility of AES as the regulated party – and that it was up to Instone to decide what PPS could and couldn’t do.

Kirsten Hastings from International Adviser has published some excerpts from the FCA’s questionnaire about Ark, PPS and AES:
- A questionnaire has been sent by the FCA to customers of AES Financial Services (which also traded as International Pension Transfer Specialists (IPTS), Premier Pension Solutions (PPS) and Premier Pension Transfers (PPT).
- These clients invested or transferred pensions into schemes managed by Ark Business Consulting and/or the Ark pension schemes.
- The questionnaire was sent to consumers to gather more information about their dealings with these firms.
- They have until 17 October to respond.
- Director of AES Sam Instone told IA: “We are absolutely certain AES Financial Services Ltd has never provided any advice at all in relation to Ark schemes, so it seems like a strange questionnaire.”
Sam Instone seems to have forgotten that AES Spain was run by rogue “adviser” Paul Clarke for some years – after leaving unlicensed firm CWM in 2010. Clarke advised several victims to transfer into Ark. And good old Sam himself advised his own Dad to transfer into Ark. I guess three destroyed pensions – with accompanying tax penalties – can be easy to forget?

Kirsten Hastings goes on to talk about the history of Stephen Ward’s Ark scam:
- In May 2011, Dalriada Trustees was appointed by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to take over schemes marketed by Ark Business Consulting.
- TPR took action following concerns that the Ark schemes were being used for pension liberation.
- According to Dalriada, such schemes generally have high charges and invest money in risky and esoteric vehicles.
- They also put members at risk of having to pay large sums of tax.
- The latest Dalriada update to members states it is “not able to place a value on any members’ benefits at the time and are therefore unable to make payments to members”.
Kirsten also mentions some further points in the FCA questionnaire:

Kirsten Hastings editor at International Adviser
- Did the client (Ark victim) approach the firm or vice versa?
- Where was the client based when these services were provided?
- Would clients be willing to sign a witness statement?
- What regulatory protections was the client told there were?
All Ark victims would certainly be more than happy to sign a witness statement to evidence what Stephen Ward, PPS and AES did, wrote, promised, assured and persuaded.

The regulatory protection, of course, for anyone advised by Stephen Ward’s Premier Pension Solutions (which was most of them) in the Ark scam, was Sam Instone’s AES Financial Services – according to all the documentation.

Ward promoted the Ark £27 million scam during 2010 and 2011 – cases being documented on PPS headed paper announcing that the firm was a “Partner” of AES and regulated through AES. Ward would have earned at least £1 million through the Ark scam – all of which would have been paid through AES.

When Ark went tits up, Ward launched his next pension liberation scam: Evergreen Retirement Benefits QROPS in New Zealand – with his accompanying 50% Marazion “loans”. Again, all advice was given on PPS headed paper announcing that the firm was an AES partner and regulated through AES. This meant another 300 victims lost more than £10 million worth of pensions. It also meant that PPS and AES between them earned at least £1 million from the scam (10% of transfer values). These fees were paid direct to AES.

When Evergreen collapsed (as all PPS pension scams eventually did) in 2012, Ward set up the Capita Oak scam. Another 300 people lost over £10 million – all invested in Store First store pods. Again, all pension transfers were done by Ward. Alongside Capita Oak, Ward carried out all the transfers for Henley (another 250 victims losing £8 million in Store First) and Westminster (another 79 victims losing £3.3 million in other toxic, high-commission investments). All these schemes are currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Throughout this era – during which all business done by PPS went through AES – Ward ran multiple, multi-£million pension scams – mostly involving liberation fraud:
- Bollington Wood
- Capita Oak
- Dorrixo Alliance
- Endeavour QROPS
- Evergreen QROPS
- Feldspar
- Halkin
- Hammerley
- Headforte
- Henley Retirement Benefits
- London Quantum
- Southlands
- Randwick
- Randwick Estates
- Southern Star QROPS
- Superlife QROPS
The above list comprises QROPS which were used abusively, and bogus occupational schemes.

All these PPS scams resulted in many hundreds more victims losing millions of pounds’ worth of pensions. Many of these unfortunate people were also persuaded by Ward to liberate their pensions, and so they would have faced crippling tax penalties as well.

Ward’s final triumph in his long-running pension scam campaign was London Quantum. He proudly announced this scheme saying that “Ark is history” and that he was now going straight. Still trading as an AES partner and agent, Ward conned 100 victims into the London Quantum scheme. This was invested in the usual high-risk, high-commission and entirely inappropriate assets (including Dolphin Trust loans and car parking spaces at Park First Glasgow). London Quantum ended up being classified by Dalriada Trustees as being “probably worthless”.

In the Ark Pensions scam, it is clear why so many victims thought PPS was a properly-regulated firm – AS AN AGENT AND “PARTNER” OF AES:
“Premier Pension Solutions SL …..is an authorised agent of AES Financial Services Ltd authorised to conduct investment and insurance business. AN AES INTERNATIONAL PARTNER.“

In the subsequent £100 million Continental Wealth Management pension and investment scam, Ward continued to “advise” hundreds of victims to transfer their precious pensions into the hands of known scammers – in the full knowledge that their pensions would be invested in high-risk, high-commission rubbish funds and structured notes:

But Stephen Ward was a bit more than just an “agent” and “partner” of AES. He was also an integral part of the AES management team – and boasted that he was Director of International Pensions. When all the pension scams finally collapsed, leaving thousands destitute and desperate – as well as hounded by HMRC – Ward and Instone set up IPTS: International Pension Transfer Specialists. This new venture was run from Ward’s office in Moraira – although they tried to hide this by using a PO Box at nearby LettersRUs. And so the misery continued…..

Stephen Ward in the front row of the AES team of “experienced experts”.
September 24, 2021
Vicious Circle of Stephen Ward’s and Dalriada’s pension scams.
January 28/29 2021 saw the cross examination of Stephen Ward in Pension Life’s criminal case in the Denia court. Ward gave the judge an elaborate explanation as to how and why none of the Continental Wealth Management pension and investment scams were his fault.

Ward provided the pension transfer “advice” to hundreds of Continental Wealth Management victims – facilitating the handing over of millions of pounds’ worth of personal and occupational pensions into the hands of well-known, firmly-established scammers. Once out of the relative safety of the UK, and into the offshore abyss, the scammers made millions out of undisclosed commissions on the victims’ life savings. The investments were, of course, largely worthless. Victims lost somewhere between a small percentage and a large percentage – with a few losing 100%. And a few more even going overdrawn on their pension accounts.

Ward’s Spanish firm Premier Pension Solutions, worked as “sister company” to Darren Kirby’s and Jody Smart’s Continental Wealth Management. After Ark in 2011, Ward moved straight onto the Evergreen New Zealand QROPS liberation scam. And CWM did the cold calling to sign up 300 victims to the toxic £10 million pension scam and so-called “loans” from Ward’s own finance company – Marazion.

Ark (and indeed Evergreen) victims may well want an answer to the question: why hasn’t Ward been prosecuted before now? The lack of any previous criminal proceedings against him, for the many other scams he was involved in, is – indeed – astonishing.

Capita Oak, Westminster, Southlands, Headforte, London Quantum et al – could all have been prevented had Ward been behind bars. Victims of all of those scams might still have their pensions had it not been for Ward.

Part of the answer may lie with Dalriada Trustees. The firm was appointed by the Pensions Regulator to the Ark schemes as independent trustee on 31st May 2011. Over £27 million worth of pensions had been transferred from safe, professionally-run pension schemes into the six Ark schemes. Nearly 500 people are affected – many of whom had received reciprocal “loans” on the advice of Stephen Ward and his very convincing associates. Ward had assured all the victims that the loans would be “tax free”. But, of course, HMRC does not share that view – and the tax trial is starting in March 2021.

HMRC is looking to tax all those who did get “loans” and also all those who didn’t. HMRC’s argument is firstly that even if members didn’t get a loan, they had made the transfer with the intention of getting a loan, and secondly that they “made” a loan.

One of the first questions I ever asked Dalriada back in 2013 (appointed by the Pensions Regulator – who registered the Ark schemes in the first place) was:

“Why didn’t you bring criminal proceedings against Stephen Ward and all the other scammers who set up and ran Ark?”

Dalriada’s answer was:

“We didn’t think it was within our remit”.

So what is (or was) Dalriada’s remit? And has it fulfilled that remit? And how much has it cost?

DALRIADA’S REMIT:
- To suspend the Ark schemes so that no further “loans” could be made; no further victims lost their pensions; no further toxic investments could be made
- To investigate the schemes to find out how they had been run and where the money had gone
- To recover the toxic investments and return the money to the schemes
- To liaise with the members and keep them informed
- To liaise with HMRC on the unauthorised payment tax liabilities
The above points are all guesses on my part. Certainly, Dalriada has admitted that they didn’t really know where to start at the beginning. They had no idea what they would find, once they started investigating, and no clue as to how much work was going to be involved.

Dalriada has, indeed, recovered some of the toxic investments in the Ark schemes. But communications with the members have been limp at best. Dalriada has spent a lot of time, effort and money on taking proceedings against the victims themselves to recover the “loans”, but seems to have spent zero time, effort or money on pursuing the scammers.

Most important of all, Dalriada has not invested any of the money left in the Ark schemes – so members (victims) have missed out on the longest investment bull run in history. Bottom line: there’s been no growth in the value of the Ark funds – only shrinkage. Had the funds been invested in something as simple as a low-cost tracker fund, they could have grown by some 330% at least.

Of the original £27 million in the Ark schemes, Dalriada has spent more than £7.4 million on trustees’ and lawyers’ fees between 31st May 2011 and 31st May 2020. But isn’t it reasonable to ask: “Why couldn’t Dalriada have spent some of that money on criminal proceedings against Stephen Ward and some (or all) of the other scammers?”

Dalriada Trustees have been appointed to more than 100 pension scams in the past ten years (by the Pensions Regulator). But there is no evidence that any of the scammers – especially the prolific Stephen Ward – have ever had any CRIMINAL action taken against them by Dalriada in an effort to prevent further scams.

The Mail’s financial reporter Tom Kelly (who has been covering the CWM criminal trial in Spain) has published an article about Dalriada and their trusteeship of pension scams.

Kelly reports that “Pension scam victims have lost millions of pounds more to the government-appointed trustees hired to get their money back.” and that “Victims say Dalriada Trustees ‘inexplicably’ held their recovered retirement savings for years and then only paid a fraction of their money back.”

Kelly has been to meet me in Spain several times. He attended the Denia court for the first set of cross examinations in 2020, and reports that “tens of thousands of savers had lost up to £10 billion in rogue schemes that looked safe because they were registered by HMRC and overseen by the Pensions Regulator”.

Kelly goes on to cite the case of one victim who waited seven years to have his £157,000 pension pot returned to him by Dalriada. But they deducted £90,000 in charges before handing it back to him. And this was after Dalriada had rescued the fund in full, before the scammers had managed to invest the money in toxic, commission-paying assets.

With 5,400 pension scam victims having Dalriada as their trustees, it is perhaps time to ask whether this is a tenable solution. Scammers could, realistically, be forgiven for thinking that once Dalriada takes charge, this is merely a license for the next scam, and the next one, and the next one…… Because, Dalriada is never going to report the scammers for fraud. So they are free to keep on scamming people out of their pensions repeatedly.

And Dalriada is free to keep on earning fees out of more and more scams which were registered by the Pensions Regulator and HMRC, and placed into their hands by the Pensions Regulator (and taxed by HMRC). Repeat, repeat, repeat. Vicious circle perpetuated by limp regulation, lazy trustees and stiff scammers.
February 11, 2021
Pension Fraud Tax Epidemic
Coronavirus is a terrifying epidemic – just as the scamming and taxing of pension savers is an epidemic of equally-devastating proportions. Governments across the globe are putting in place extraordinary measures to stop the spread of Covid 19. Yet the British government, regulators and law enforcers have achieved nothing in terms of rescuing existing and preventing future pension scam victims.

Boris Johnson’s government has proved that laws can be changed overnight when necessary. All it needs is the recognition of the reason for the law change. Yet nothing has been done in ten years to change laws relating to pension scams, unauthorised payment charges and accompanying devasting financial consequences for victims.

Britain has had a series of no-hoper pensions ministers. “Pensions minister” seems to be a position where peculiar people are stuck in – as square pegs in round holes – so they are out of the way and can’t do too much damage (as in challenging the government over its shameful failure to tackle pension scams).

As the Coronavirus crisis escalates, millions of people will face financial hardship. Businesses will fold; jobs will be lost; pensions and investments will collapse. But HMRC will keep scrambling to tax the victims they caused in the first place – heaping more financial misery on victims whose pensions have been stolen.

Causes of pension scams must be thoroughly understood in order to recognise what must be done:
- HMRC registers occupational pension schemes – even though there is no sponsoring employer which either employs anybody – or which exists at all
- The Pensions Regulator registers occupational schemes – knowing the registrant is a serial scammer
- HMRC keeps QROPS on the list even they know they are running outright scams and operating liberation
- HMRC and tPR fail to warn ceding providers and the public when they suspect (or have evidence of) fraud
- Ceding providers hand over £ millions to obvious pension scams without carrying out any due diligence
- Serial scammers are left free to keep on scamming as the police, the SFO and the Insolvency Service do nothing effective to put them behind bars
- Pensions and Treasury ministers do nothing to halt the avalanche of scams and the taxing of the victims
- Opportunistic scammers in the UK and offshore devise ever-more crafty ways of relieving victims of their pensions
HMRC’s negligent role in pension scams is clearly illustrated in both the Ark and Salmon Enterprises cases. In 2010 and 2011, HMRC knew full well what the scammers – Stephen Ward and James Lau were up to. They met with Ark’s Stephen Ward and his pensions lawyer associate Alan Fowler in February 2011. HMRC also opened an enquiry into the schemes – but didn’t suspend the registration to stop them from attracting still more victims. At the time of their February 2011 meeting with Ward and Fowler, there was £7 million in the Ark schemes. By the time Dalriada was appointed, there was a further £20 million.

Between April and September 2010, HMRC had the administrators of the Salmon Enterprises arrested on suspicion of fraud – yet still they did not suspend the scheme or warn the public or ceding providers. During this period – and right up until well into 2011 – Salmon Enterprises remained a “valid” pension scheme with a PSTR registration number and nothing was done to stop more victims (such as Mr. R below) from being scammed out of their pensions.

There’s been well-meaning talk of an “amnesty” for fraud victims. But the problem is that won’t work unless fraud can be proven. And the British authorities have proved themselves to be inept and disinterested when it comes to convicting known fraudsters. It has been left to the Spanish criminal courts to charge Stephen Ward and Paul Clarke with fraud as there’s been no movement in the UK.

In Britain, however, the scammers mostly just carry on unchallenged. Even a police officer can’t get the police to prosecute; Action Fraud takes no action; Project Bloom is meaningless and does nothing; the FCA is a bad joke and the government couldn’t care less.

Below is a summary by a Salmon Enterprises victim of his appalling case. He has asked his MP to refer this to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Hopefully both the MP and the ombudsman will do their jobs properly and get this sickening epidemic resolved once and for all. All the perpetrators (not just the scammers themselves but also HMRC and tPR – as well as the series of pensions and treasury ministers who have all failed in their duty to address this issue) need to be sanctioned. Most important of all, measures need to be put in place to prevent the same thing from happening again – that is what Mr. R and all his fellow victims want.

SALMON ENTERPRISES/TUDOR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT PENSION SCAM AND TAX PENALTY – by Mr. R:

“I had a National Grid and a CSC final salary pension scheme, after 35 years of service, which together totalled £528,447.25.

I was scammed out of these pensions into the bogus Salmon Enterprises occupational scheme, which was registered by HMRC and tPR, by an FCA-regulated adviser (now under investigation by the Insolvency Service for fraud) in June 2011. I took out less than the 25% legally allowed after my 55^th birthday. I’ve been forced to pay £37,956.79 in unauthorised payment tax by HMRC.

TIMELINE:
- 28/8/09 – Salmon Enterprises occupational pension scheme registered by HMRC and tPR with Tudor Capital Management – TCML – (run by directors Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley) as administrators.
- 07/4/10 – FSA wrote to tPR announcing a criminal investigation into Meeson, Bradley and TCML. HMRC wrote to tPR stating arrest warrants issued for TCML directors
- 08/4/10 – CPS obtained worldwide asset restraint order against TCML director Peter Spencer Bradley.
- 08/4/10 – tPR met to decide to suspend TCML as trustees/administrators.
- 29/4/10 – Peter & Alison Bradley (TCML directors) arrested on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and cheating the public revenue – although not for cheating the public.
- 30/4/10 – HMRC wrote to tPR with evidence of criminal investigation
- 07/9/10 – Andrew Meeson (TCML director) arrested
- 28/2/11 – HMRC wrote to tPR with details of ongoing criminal investigation, arrests made, draft report of offences and evidence submitted to Crown Court.
- February 2011 – no warnings placed in public domain and HMRC refused to comment when asked by ceding providers to comment on the arrest and criminal investigation of the scheme administrators
- May 2011 – I was introduced to IFA James Lau of Wightman Fletcher McCabe – FCA Reg 185570 – by two existing Salmon Enterprises members who had been offered commissions by James Lau for the introduction of new members
- May 2011 – James Lau confirmed the scheme was registered by HMRC but did not inform me the administrators were under investigation for fraud
- June 2011 – Tudor Capital Management sent transfer documents to national Grid and CSC.
- June 2011 – National Grid transferred £454,647.25 and CSC transferred £73,800 to TCML – asking no questions about the provenance of the scheme, or directors/administrators or whether liberation was involved/intended
- June 2011 – neither ceding provider checked the receiving scheme was bona fide before transferring £528,447.25
- June 2011 – while HMRC and tPR were investigating Tudor Capital Management for fraud, neither did anything to warn ceding providers or the public
- June 2011 – HMRC received a query from one suspicious ceding provider relating to Salmon Enterprises. HMRC’s Leigh Hands responded by quoting the registration number of the scheme – and gave no further details or warnings
- June 2011 – HMRC received a second query from the same suspicious ceding provider seeking further clarification: “My concern is based on the fact that an article appeared in the pensions press on 21 October 2010 stating: Four people connected with TCML have been arrested on suspicion of fraud, cheating the public revenue and money laundering”.
- HMRC responded: “I am unable to disclose any information regarding TCML due to our strict rules on confidentiality”. The transfer went ahead. And this was prior to my transfers going ahead on 15^th July 2011 and 12^th August 2011.
- 31/01/2012 and 1/03/2012 – £49,072 was released from my pension fund – approximately 9.3% of the fund value – after my 55th birthday (16/12/2011)
- February 2013 – Received annual statement from the Salmon Enterprises scheme.
- April 2015 – Received a tax assessment from HMRC claiming my £49,072 did not constitute a “valid” PCLS (Pension Commencement Lump Sum).
- April 2015 – HMRC assessed me on a further £30,000 which I never received
- March 2016 – Engaged Ms A. Brooks of Pension Life as my agent to appeal the tax assessment. The appeal went to the Tax Tribunals and did not succeed.
- February 2020 – Paid in full the £37,956.79 tax assessment.
The remainder of my pension built up after a lifetime’s work – £479,375 – has been stolen by James Lau. I am not aware of any effort being made by any British authority to recover it.”

This personal account of the fraud committed against Mr. R raises a number of serious questions:
1. Why did neither HMRC nor tPR suspend the registration of the Salmon Enterprises scheme in April 2010 when the criminal investigation into the trustees was first launched – to prevent victims such as Mr. R from being scammed?
2. Why did tPR’s Determinations Panel not even bother to have a meeting until October 2011 to “consider” whether to use special procedures? They had known about suspected criminal activity in the Salmon Enterprises scheme since early 2010 – 18 months earlier.
3. Why did the investigation into suspected fraud against the “Public Revenue” not extend to an urgent investigation into the “fraud against the public“?
4. After the State was reasonably prompt with the investigation, prosecution and jailing of Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley, why was James Lau – the FCA-registered adviser who promoted and operated the Salmon Enterprises scheme – not simultaneously investigated, prosecuted and jailed?
5. Why didn’t the Pensions Regulator place the Salmon Enterprises scheme into the hands of a competent independent trustee immediately the fraud was suspected? Since 2011, there is no evidence that any effort has been made by any party to recover the £ millions stolen by James Lau, Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley
6. Why has no pensions minister since 2010 raised any questions on the issues relating to the multiple failures of HMRC and tPR in the case of Tudor Capital Management and Salmon Enterprises? (Or, indeed, in the case of dozens of other pension scams). This shameful and negligent failure falls squarely on the shoulders of them all: Steve Webb; Iain Duncan-Smith; Ros Altman; Stephen Crabb; Damian Green; David Gauke; Esther McVey; Amber Rudd, Therese Coffey and Guy Opperman.
The shame of the above lazy, incompetent bunch of ministerial failures in charge of Britain’s pensions must also extend to three prime ministers: David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson. None of them have done anything about pension fraud – or even shown the slightest interest in intending to tackle it – beyond empty promises.

All the same questions raised about Tudor Capital Management and Salmon Enterprises must also be asked about the Ark scam. HMRC knew that Craig Tweedley and Stephen Ward and Co were operating and promoting what was probably pension liberation in the summer of 2010. Yet nothing was done until nearly 500 people had fallen victim to the scam and faced hefty losses and tax liabilities – as well as an agonising wait of at least ten years to find out their eventual fate and get a sniff of closure on this shameful episode.

In order to get a tax amnesty for fraud, there have to be investigations and convictions for fraud. The new trustees, Dalriada – appointed by tPR in May 2011 – didn’t feel it was “in their remit” to report the perps for fraud.

And so Craig Tweedley, Amanda Clarke, Andrew Hields, Andrew Isles, Geoff Mills, Jeremy Dening, Julian Hanson, Mark Ainsworth, Mark Tweedley, Michael Rotherforth, Stephen Ward, Richard Davies, Stephen Tennent, George Frost, Gary Collin, Anthony Salih, Paul Clarke and Alan Fowler remain at large. Not one of them has ever been brought to justice.

It may be that while some of the above players in the Ark scam were more guilty than others, it is a matter of record that Stephen Ward was the most prolific of all those flogging Ark and the “MPVA” reciprocal loan arrangement. Ward sold more than a third of the whole fund at £10,693,332 worth of transfers – followed by Julian Hanson at £5,330,525 and Jeremy Dening at £2,216,720. Dalriada’s failure to have any of these players investigated for fraud is shameful. It is also utterly astonishing that Andrew Isles – an accountant – was still flogging Ark even after he knew HMRC was sniffing around and that he was condemning his own clients to an unauthorised payment tax charge.

It is also a matter of record that Craig Tweedley, Stephen Ward, Alan Fowler and Andrew Isles continued operating and promoting Ark months after HMRC expressed their unease and suspicions – making no effort to stop the promotion and operation of the Ark schemes.

There are many questions to be asked about both the Salmon Enterprises and Ark scams. It would be good to think that complaints by the victims to their MPs will result in a bulk complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. It would also be wonderful to think that an amnesty for fraud victims would be possible, but the question remains: who is going to have the fraudsters prosecuted? Dalriada Trustees says it is “watching with the interest” the prosecution of Stephen Ward and Paul Clarke for fraud (on an entirely different case involving an unconnected scam in Spain). But this purported “interest” has yet to become intense enough to provoke a simple phone call to ask how it is all going (or how they could do the same thing themselves).

I still wish that tPR had appointed an independent trustee to the Salmon Enterprises scheme. All the victims – such as Mr. R – would also like to know the answer to that burning question. But they are also painfully aware that tPR-appointed independent trusteeship isn’t without its own problems. In the Ark case, Dalriada has taken far more money out of the funds than the scammers ever did, and the members still to this day – after nine years – don’t have a sniff of ever getting their pension funds transferred into a proper pension scheme. But at least they know that what little is left is “relatively” safe and the only risk to it is the possibility of another nine years of Dalriada at the helm and another £7 million being spent on trustees’ and legal fees.

Mr. R is in contact with some other victims of the Salmon Enterprises scam. They are all planning on submitting summaries and complaints to their MPs and asking them to refer the matter to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Ark victims have tried contacting their MPs and pensions ministers for many years, but not one single MP or minister has ever engaged with the process of an ombudsman complaint against HMRC and tPR. Perhaps that will now change – as all MPs and ministers are now working from home and will no longer have to spend so much time travelling to and from the House of Commons.

Coronavirus has taught us an important lesson: the law must be about safety and justice – and must be changed quickly when a crisis arises. Pension fraud has been an epidemic for ten years – and now the law must finally be changed QUICKLY so that the perpetrators of pension scams are brought to justice.
April 5, 2020
Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice

As the decade comes to a close, it is clearer than ever that victims of investment fraud need justice. The dirtiest stain on society is that of pension and investment fraud. Scammers have made fortunes out of pension and investment scams in the UK and across the globe – in all leading expat jurisdictions. With little sign of this international crime abating, scammers continue making fortunes out of relieving people of their life savings.

The FCA managed to get out of bed (briefly) to bring to justice the scammer behind the Dynamic £600k investment scam. But completely overlooked over £1 billion worth of other investment scams.

Meanwhile, the very authorities which should be preventing financial crime – regulators; law enforcement agencies; HMRC; Insolvency Service; government; courts – stand around clueless and helpless. Their inaction is embarrassing and disgusting – especially in the wake of the appalling announcement that Andrew Bailey has been appointed governor of the Bank of England.

The saddest thing – for our society in general and existing victims in particular – is that it can be done. But we must ask ourselves why the criminals are brought to justice so seldom. On 20th December 2019, FT Adviser published an article reporting how one fraudster was brought to justice and ordered to pay redress to his victims.

Manraj Singh Virdee of Dynamic UK Trades Ltd conned 24 victims out of more than £600,000. His method was to promise returns of 100% for investing in his forex trading and spread betting “expertise”. The FCA brought a case against this criminal who was convicted by Southwark Crown Court. The sentence was only a suspended prison sentence for running an unauthorised investment scheme. However, the court made a confiscation order against Singh Virdee of £171,913 – to be used to compensate the victims. If he doesn’t pay, he will be sentenced to two years in prison.

It is indeed good to know that during a prolonged period of being asleep at the wheel, the FCA can do a wee bit of regulating. But why does Manraj Singh Virdee deserve to be sentenced for defrauding 24 victims out of £600,000 when so many other scammers have got away with defrauding many thousands of victims out of many £ millions?

Victims of Investment Fraud need Justice: In 2020, pressure must be brought to bear on the inattentive, lazy and negligent authorities who have done nothing. It is simply not acceptable to turn a blind eye to so much financial crime. This is especially true when cases like the Singh Virdee one clearly demonstrate that if only they could be bothered, they could actually clean up the scamming industry. But, first, they have to want to do it. And as things stand, there is no evidence that they really do want to.

While this would-be forex trader and spread better faces a couple of years behind bars, the rest of the scammers are still out there scamming away merrily and profitably. Shouldn’t 2020 be the year to make pension and investment scamming illegal? Because as things stand, the scammers know they can get away with it easily.

Singh Virdee’s scam was pretty obvious, and I do not mean to trivialise the £600k he scammed out of his victims. But this is dwarfed by Stephen Ward‘s £3 million London Quantum pension scam; David Vilka‘s £7 million GFS QROPS scam; Stephen Ward and XXXX XXXX’s £10 million Capita Oak pension scam; XXXX XXXX’s £21 million Trafalgar Multi Asset QROPS investment scam; Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh‘s £25 million Blackmore Bond investment scam; Stephen Ward’s £27 million Ark pension scam; Phillip Nunn and Patrick McCreesh‘s £41 million Blackmore Global investment scam; Old Mutual International and Leonteq‘s £94 million investment/life bond scam; London Capital & Finance‘s £230 million mini bond scam; Dolphin Trust‘s £600 million derelict property loan scam.

So, come on FCA: £600,000 down – only £1,158,000,000 to go!

December 23, 2019
Dalriada Trustees – Ark Pension Liberation Scam
While Dalriada Trustees and Pinsent Masons count their handsome earnings, HMRC prepare to ruin the victims with unauthorised tax charges from the Ark pension liberation scam.

Dalriada Trustees were appointed by the Pensions Regulator on 31st May 2011 to take over the six Ark schemes: Cranbourne; Grosvenor, Tallton Place, Lancaster, Portman and Woodcroft.

Designed, set up, promoted and operated by Andrews Isles of Isles and Storer Accountants, Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions and Craig Tweedley of Castlerock Consulting, the Ark schemes were operating pension liberation fraud. Other promoters and introducers included Gary Collin of Asset Harbour (FCA-registered mortgage broker and will writer) and Julian Hanson (who went on to promote and distribute the Barratt and Dalton pension scam) through a scheme called:

MAXIMISING PENSION VALUE ARRANGEMENTS (a reciprocal version of straightforward pension busting).

Since their appointment, Dalriada Trustees have paid themselves a total of £1,637,795 in trustees’ fees from the Ark members’ cash. This is broken down as follows:
- £293,976 Cranbourne
- £209,620 Grosvenor
- £292,469 Tallton
- £246,177 Lancaster
- £402,677 Portman
- £192,876 Woodcroft
In addition to the £1,637,795 paid to Dalriada, £4,041,579 was paid to their solicitors, Pinsent Masons. This figure will have included fees paid to their QC Fenner Moeran.

This means that 20.85% of the original transfer value of £27,237,257 has now been spent on trustees’ and solicitors’ fees.

During the past eight years, none of the liquid funds have been invested by Dalriada. Every year, the value of the funds shrinks naturally as there is nothing to protect them from inflation and the impact of charges on the cash and investments.

After Dalriada’s appointment on 31.5.2011, they allowed a further £1,730,626 worth of transfers which should have been rejected. Ark victims who were given MPVA “loans” are now being taxed at 55% by HMRC. Ark victims who weren’t given MPVA “loans” are also now being taxed at 55% by HMRC. Dalriada and Pinsent Masons are forcing victims to repay the “loans” – even though they will still be taxed by HMRC.

Despite the fact that nearly 500 Ark victims have paid Dalriada Trustees and Pinsent Masons £5,679,374 in fees, what have they actually delivered?
- What financial help has been given to the members for challenging HMRC? Answer: NONE
- How many victims have been allowed to transfer out of the Ark scheme? Answer: NONE
- How many victims have been allowed to take their PCLS? Answer: NONE
- Is there any idea how many more years Dalriada will keep the Ark pensions suspended? Answer: NONE
- Is there any limit on how much more Dalriada and Pinsent Masons can keep paying themselves in fees? Answer: NONE
- How many of the scammers behind Ark have been prosecuted? Answer: NONE
- How much of the Ark members’ funds have been invested? Answer: NONE
How many more pension schemes have Dalriada been appointed to since 2014? Answer: 31

Based on an average of £1,000,000 a year paid to Dalriada and Pinsent Masons out of the members funds since 2011, the total to May 2019 will be at least £6.5 million (although the accounts won’t be available until at least January 2020).

And based on all of the above – IS THERE A BETTER WAY?
November 11, 2019
Dear Boris – when you’re PM…
Boris Johnson for PM – sorting out pension scams?

Hey BJ – just a quick note to wish you luck in the PM contest. If you win, please make it your priority to sort out pension fraud.

Treating head lice – like fighting pension scammers – is a matter of the utmost urgency. Everyone knows that if you don’t kill the lice, they keep breeding and before you know it there’s a serious infestation. Same thing happens with pension scammers.

The British government must now sort this urgent problem out – scammers must be treated like head lice.

The problem is that for the past ten years, the British government – as well as HMRC, the Pensions Regulator, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Insolvency Service, the Police, the FCA and Dalriada Trustees – have left pension scammers free to breed. Like head lice.

Just to remind you Boris, you have pension scam victims in your own constituency and you represent their rights. And every single person in the UK exists to do one thing: RETIRE. So, the pension scammers defraud these people (thousands of them) out of what they have worked hard for all their lives.

I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but let me explain to you how pension scams work:
- HMRC registers the occupational pension schemes
- The Pensions Regulator registers the occupational pension schemes
- Ceding pension providers such as Standard Life, Scottish Widows and Aviva (as well as DB schemes such as the NHS, Teachers and the Police) hand over pensions to the scammers
- The FCA lets unregulated “advisers” carry out regulated “advice” without sanction
- HMRC and the Pensions Regulator allow scams to continue unhindered and fail to warn either the public or the industry
- The Pensions Regulator places schemes into the hands of Dalriada Trustees
- Nobody (except the victims) reports the scammers to the crime enforcement agencies
- The scammers are left free to scam over and over again
- HMRC taxes the victims and not the scammers
- The police won’t even prosecute the scammers who scam police officers
One appalling example is the Salmon Enterprises case. Two former Inland Revenue officers – Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley – set up a pension trustee company called Tudor Capital Management and registered a bogus occupational pension scheme called Salmon Enterprises. HMRC and the Pensions Regulator accepted the registration without question.

In 2010, HMRC, the Pensions Regulator and the Crown Prosecution Service started to investigate Meeson and Bradley for tax fraud and money laundering offences. (After three years of “investigation”, Meeson and Bradley were jailed for eight years apiece).

But, neither HMRC nor the Pensions Regulator warned the public or the industry. While one hundred victims were scammed out of their pensions, HMRC continued to confirm to ceding providers that Salmon Enterprises was an HMRC-registered pension scheme. And the Pensions Regulator deliberately concealed the fact that the trustees were under criminal investigation for fraud.

So now HMRC stands to collect £millions in tax from the victims who have lost their pensions.

At the same time as HMRC and the Pensions Regulator were facilitating the Salmon Enterprises pension scam, they were also facilitating the Ark scam.

The main promoter of Ark was Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions SL and Premier Pension Transfers Ltd. HMRC met with Stephen Ward in February 2011 – after six months of communicating with him and expressing concern about the reciprocal “loans” he was facilitating. But still neither HMRC nor the Pensions Regulator shut the Ark schemes down. And 486 people got scammed out of their pensions and are now fighting off tax demands by HMRC.

HMRC and the Pensions Regulator went on to register dozens more bogus occupational pension schemes by Stephen Ward. And so, after Ark, thousands more victims lost their pensions and got huge tax bills from HMRC. Many people reckon – understandably – that HMRC is even worse than the scammers.
- The Pensions Regulator appointed Dalriada as independent trustee to ARK. But Dalriada said it was “not within their remit” to report Stephen Ward and the rest of the scammers who promoted and ran ARK.
- The Pensions Regulator appointed Dalriada as independent trustee to CAPITA OAK. But Dalriada said it was “not within their remit” to report Stephen Ward and the rest of the scammers who promoted and ran CAPITA OAK.
- The Pensions Regulator appointed Dalriada as independent trustee to WESTMINSTER. But Dalriada said it was “not within their remit” to report Stephen Ward and the rest of the scammers who promoted and ran WESTMINSTER .
- And so it went on and on and on….and the head lice continued to breed. XXXX XXXX entered the arena and after running the Capita Oak scam (300 victims who lost £10 million between them), he went on to run the Trafalgar Multi Asset Fund scam along with STM Fidecs – and another 400 victims lost over £20 million worth pension funds.
- Stephen Ward also went on unchallenged, and scammed more victims out of millions in the London Quantum pension scam. (Also in the hands of Dalriada Trustees).
So what next BJ? Are you going to make this a priority? You need to get all these scammers put where they belong – behind bars. You need decent regulation and law enforcement to put things right and stop this from happening again. You must make Britain a safe place for decent citizens to work hard and save for a pension without getting defrauded by scammers and losing the lot.

Most of all, you need a tax amnesty to stop HMRC from destroying the victims of fraud. If you don’t do this, you might as well bring in a law to prosecute victims of rape.

You also need to understand that pension fraud has moved on. Many of the scammers now use offshore pension schemes to get pensions out of the UK and into high-risk, toxic investments and insurance bonds that pay huge commissions and destroy the pension funds.

Billions of pounds’ worth of life savings have been lost. Millions of pounds’ worth of tax liabilities have been demanded by HMRC unjustly – from the very victims who are now at their wits’ end through losing their pensions. The honour of Britain as a safe, well-regulated jurisdiction is trashed. The reputation of British financial advisers is compromised. The industry is riddled with non-compliant and fraudulent practices in all British expat countries.

Boris, you need to promise you will sort this appalling mess out if you become PM.
July 14, 2019
London Quantum pension scam – Ombudsman finds Police Guilty
Pensions Ombudsman’s Determination – Justice for Police Victim

Among the flood of apathy, laziness and callousness by ceding pension trustees since at least 2010, we now have a Pensions Ombudsman’s determination which will hopefully result in more trustees being brought to account – and more victims getting justice.

The London Quantum victim who made the complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman – Mr. N – is a serving police officer with the Northumbria Police Authority. In October 2014, he was scammed out of his Police final salary pension scheme and into Stephen Ward’s pension scam: London Quantum.

It is worth noting that, in May of 2014, I went to London and handed HMRC evidence of Stephen Ward’s various pension scams – including his pension administration and trustee firm: Dorrixo Alliance (the trustee for London Quantum). But HMRC did nothing – and hence Mr N (along with 97 other victims) got scammed into London Quantum just a few months later. The fact that if HMRC had done its job this would have been prevented is an absolute disgrace.

It is also worth noting that HMRC met with Stephen Ward in February 2011 to discuss the Ark pension scam – so they were fully aware back then that Ward was heavily involved with pension fraud. And yet they cheerfully registered pension schemes such as Hammerley for his firm Dorrixo Alliance which was registered at his UK address: 31 Memorial Road, Worsley.

We have warned about the significant dangers of unregulated firms, unqualified advisers, bogus occupational schemes, toxic investments and liberation fraud for years. Yet still, the ceding trustees have stubbornly ignored us – and also ignored the Pensions Regulator’s Scorpion campaign (published in February 2013).

And now the chickens have come home to roost thanks to the Pensions Ombudsman’s determination in Mr N’s favour – and hopefully this will bring to justice to more victims of negligence by similarly lazy trustees.

Highlights from the Pensions Ombudsman’s determination are quoted below – with my comments in bold. First, however, it is important to understand the background and put the Police Authority’s negligence into context.

In 2010/11, dozens of trustees handed over £ millions to the Ark scam. The worst offender in the personal pension sector was Standard Life; the worst offender in the DB sector was Royal Mail – by a royal mile. We were denied permission to bring complaints to the Pensions Ombudsman as the Ark transfers were effected prior to February 2013 – the date the Pensions Regulator’s “Scorpion” warning was published.

And this, of course, was a great shame. Because Standard Life and Royal Mail – along with dozens of other negligent trustees – went on to hand over more £ millions and ruin thousands more lives. Three of the other worst-performing personal pension trustees in the subsequent Capita Oak and Westminster scams (now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office) were Scottish Widows and Prudential.

None of these lazy, box-ticking ceding providers has ever paid redress to their victims (to our knowledge). Further, in the case of Royal Mail, PASA (Pension Administration Standards Association) has given Royal Mail trustees not one but two accreditations – despite the fact that they have never compensated any of their members for handing over their pensions to the scammers.

Before we look at the determination, let us look at a depressingly common thread which runs through these pension scams.
- In 2010/11, Stephen Ward (Level 6 qualified, former pensions examiner) was promoting and administering the Ark pension liberation scam. 486 victims lost £27 million worth of pensions and face £ millions in tax charges. The schemes are now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees and Stephen Ward has never been prosecuted. Dozens of ceding providers handed over hundreds of personal and occupational pensions without question.
- In 2012, Stephen Ward was promoting and administering the Evergreen New Zealand QROPS/Marazion liberation scam. 300 victims lost £10 million worth of pensions and face £ millions in tax charges. The scheme is now being wound up and Stephen Ward has never been prosecuted. Dozens of ceding providers handed over hundreds of personal and occupational pensions without question.
- In 2012/13, Stephen Ward was administering the Capita Oak liberation scam (now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office). 300 victims lost £10 million worth of pensions and face £ millions in tax charges. The scheme is now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees and Stephen Ward has never been prosecuted. Dozens of ceding providers handed over hundreds of personal and occupational pensions without question.
- In 2013, Stephen Ward was administering the Westminster liberation scam (now under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office). 200 victims lost £7 million worth of pensions and face £ millions in tax charges. The scheme is now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees and Stephen Ward has never been prosecuted. Dozens of ceding providers handed over hundreds of personal and occupational pensions without question.
- In 2014, Stephen Ward was promoting and administering the London Quantum pension scam. 100 victims lost £3 million worth of pensions. The scheme is now in the hands of Dalriada Trustees and Stephen Ward has never been prosecuted. Dozens of ceding providers handed over hundreds of personal and occupational pensions without question.
I apologise if the above is somewhat repetitive. I did omit the dozen or so other schemes that Stephen Ward was also promoting which might have mixed it up a bit – as none of these is in the hands of Dalriada (yet).

Ombudsman’s Determination Applicant Mr N Scheme The Police Pension Scheme (the Scheme) Respondent Northumbria Police Authority (the Authority) Complaint Summary

https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/PO-12763.pdf

“Mr N” (a serving Police officer) complained that the (Police) Authority transferred his pension fund to a new pension scheme (the London Quantum scam) without having conducted adequate checks in relation to the receiving scheme, and failed to provide him with a sufficient warning as required by the Pensions Regulator.

Mr N did indeed complain – and has been complaining for four years. To put his complaint into context, he was advised to make the transfer by a regulated advisory firm: Gerard Associates – run by Gary Barlow. Both the firm and Mr Barlow are on the FCA register. Barlow is also Level 4 qualified with the CII http://www.cii.co.uk/web/app/membersearch/MemberSearch.aspx?endstem=1&q=n&n=gary+barlow&c=&ch=0&p=0

The complaint is upheld against the Authority because it failed to conduct adequate checks and enquiries in relation to Mr N’s new pension scheme; to send Mr N the Pensions Regulator’s transfer fraud warning leaflet; and to engage directly with Mr N regarding the concerns it should have had with his transfer request, had it properly assessed it.

The ceding provider in Mr N’s case – the Police Authority – has been denying for almost four years that they were negligent (well they would – wouldn’t they!). But surely, of all providers, the Police pension trustee ought to have known better. The Police were involved in Project Bloom – the multi-agency project including regulators, police authorities and HMRC that aimed to combat pension fraud.

In February 2013, the Pensions Regulator issued an action pack for pension professionals headed “Pension liberation fraud – The predators stalking pension transfers”. This said that: “Government enforcement agencies and advisory services have worked to produce a short leaflet that you (the ceding pension trustee) can use to help pension scheme members understand the risks and warning signs of pension liberation fraud.

But, of course, the Police Authority – along with hundreds of other ceding providers – totally ignored this warning and doomed thousands of victims to financial ruin by cheerfully handing over victims’ pensions to the scammers.

Mr N received a phone call from Viva Costa International, an unregulated introducer of work to independent financial advisers, and was referred to Gerard Associates Limited (Gerard), a firm of financial advisers.

The unregulated “introducer” has been the scourge of financial services in the UK and offshore for years. They con victims into believing they are some kind of qualified and regulated “adviser”, but in fact they are nothing more than slimy salesmen chasing commission. Of even greater concern, however, was the fact that there was an FCA-regulated firm – Gerard Associates – involved in this scam. Gerard Associates, run by CII qualified Gary Barlow, had a track record of working with Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions – helping him with his various pension scams.

The London Quantum Retirement Benefit Scheme (London Quantum) was subsequently recommended to Mr N. Based on the information available, London Quantum appears to be a defined contribution occupational pension scheme established in 2012. The sole sponsoring employer of London Quantum was Quantum Investment Management Solutions LLP, based in offices in London. That company is now in liquidation. London Quantum was originally administered by Dorrixo Alliance (UK) Limited (Dorrixo). Dorrixo became the trustee of London Quantum in 2014.

London Quantum was, in fact, a bogus occupational scheme. Dorrixo Alliance was a firm run by Stephen Ward of Premier Pension Solutions and used for a variety of his pension scams.

Gerard took a fee of nearly £5,000 out of the transfer payment. On 11 November 2014, Mr N received confirmation that the transferred funds had been invested. In 2015, Mr N looked again at the documents that he had been given in 2014, and was concerned to note that he had signed up to a high risk investment as a sophisticated investor. He was unable to obtain satisfactory responses from Gerard or Dorrixo about this.

(Note: Gerard have never refunded the £5,000 to Mr N – and, presumably, have held on to the fees charged to the other 97 victims). This is entirely typical of how pension scams work. Mr N was in fact invested in high-risk, toxic, illiquid, speculative funds which were totally unsuitable for a pension fund. The only parties who benefited from this transaction were the scammers themselves, as they would have received high investment introduction commissions. The investments included:
- Quantum PYX Management FX Fund – risky and illiquid forex trading
- Park First – UK airport car parking spaces
- Best Asset Management – Dubai car parking spaces
- The Resort Group – holiday properties in Cape Verde
- Reforestation Group – eucalyptus plantations
- Colonial Capital (three-year bonds in distressed US property)
- ABC Alpha (four-year bonds in business centres)
Most of these assets would have paid commissions to the scammers of up to 30%.

LONDON QUANTUM (DORRIXO ALLIANCE) INVESTMENTS

I note that Mr N’s transfer request was received by the Authority in November 2013, nine months after the Pensions Regulator’s pension liberation fraud guidance of February 2013 was issued, and his transfer was completed in August 2014. The pensions industry was aware of pension scams before the scorpion warning was published.

It is ironic – as well as extremely sad – that the Police Authority took no notice of the regulator’s fraud warning. And the victim who paid the price for this disgusting negligence was a serving police officer.

The Authority has admitted that it did not send Mr N a copy of the scorpion warning. The scorpion warnings were designed to be sent individually to scheme members. So, I am satisfied that maladministration has occurred.

It is indeed utterly disgusting that the Police Authority failed to send one of their own officers (who was indeed contemplating a transfer) a copy of the scorpion warning.

The next question is whether the Authority only had to send the scorpion warning to Mr N, or should have done more. I consider that it should have done more. I accept that when Mr N made his transfer request London Quantum was not a new scheme. However, the Authority ignored a number of features which other pension schemes identified as potential ‘red flags’ and accordingly refused transfer requests to that arrangement. These included that London Quantum was sponsored by a dormant company that was registered at an address far removed from the scheme member.

It has long been a disgrace that ceding providers have allowed members to transfer to a bogus occupational scheme – the sponsor of which neither traded nor employed anybody (or ever intended to do so). Justice Morgan’s overturning of a Pensions Ombudsman’s determination in the Hughes v Royal London case appalled the industry and the public. Morgan determined that a member only had to have earnings – rather than earnings with the sponsor of the scheme.

The Authority was fully aware, however, that although Mr N was a deferred member of the Scheme he was still employed as a policeman in Northumberland and he was still living in that county. The question of why he was requesting a transfer to an occupational pension scheme sponsored by a company that he did not work for, and based at the other end of the country, appears not to have concerned the Authority. I consider that the Authority should have had concerns about London Quantum, even the name might have rung alarm bells for a North-Eastern employer, and therefore it should have made some enquiries about London Quantum before it allowed the transfer to be made. Unfortunately, it failed to do so.

The Authority took the view that Mr N’s proposed transfer had none of the features of a potential pension transfer scam. However, I do not agree. In several previous determinations, we set out the type of due diligence expected of transferring schemes.

Within 28 days of the date of this Determination the Authority shall reinstate Mr N’s accrued benefits in the Scheme and pay Mr N £1,000 to reflect the materially significant distress and inconvenience that he has suffered as a result of the Authority not making appropriate checks in respect of London Quantum, and not giving Mr N the appropriate warnings.

Hopefully, now the Ombudsman will find in favour of thousands of other victims of pension scams facilitated by negligent, lazy, box-ticking ceding providers. However, the £1,000 “compensation” (for distress and inconvenience) order by the determination does not scratch the surface in terms of making up for the ordeal that Mr N has gone through. And he has suffered this profound torment while protecting the British public in the North East of England this past few years.
August 2, 2018
HOW TO SPOT A SCAMMER (FOR DUMMIES)

Al Rush, Henry Tapper, Darren Cooke, Steve Webb and Michelle Cracknell

Knowing how to spot a scammer is half the battle in the fight against pension and investment scams. And my idol and hero in this fight is Darren Cooke of Red Circle Financial Planning. Armed with his petition calling for a cold-calling ban, he quickly became a t.v. star and National celebrity.

UPDATE: Cold-calling has still not been fully banned!! (20/11/2018)

Last week, on Monday 19th June 2017 (the week of the dreaded Ark trial) I had the privilege to attend the Great Pension Transfer Debate in Peterborough – organised by the amazing Al Rush and chaired by the awesome Henry Tapper. There I met a few people I already knew but also got to meet Darren Cooke in person and tried hard not to graze my knees as I groveled humbly before him. I also met some other wonderful professionals and heard some wonderful speakers – not the least of which were Sir Steve Webb and Michelle Cracknell.

But – and I mean no disrespect to the event and it’s organisers – all the excellent things which were said during the presentations depended entirely on the quality and honourability of the advice given. With only one notable exception, the event was attended by the ethical, qualified, regulated cohort of the profession. But, of course, out in the field there are sharks and shysters by the dozen – both in the UK and offshore.

In fact, this event was a world away from the world I live and work in. The attendees of this event were the cream of the financial services profession; those who pride themselves in being ethical, honest and conscientious. Most of the people there already had reputations for maintaining the highest possible standards of professional excellence, respecting the law and regulations, and actually caring about their clients. But I felt like a fish out of water, because generally I am dealing with criminals who have deliberately and callously ruined thousands of lives – some of whom are now, thank goodness, under official investigation by the SFO.

I asked the question “could all the scammers identify themselves” – and while this produced a few chuckles, it produced not a single (or the single) hand. And thereby lies the problem: how does the public distinguish between the ethical guys and the scammers? The scammers wear the same clothes; talk the same talk; have the same leather-bound portfolios and briefcases and sport the same smart hair cuts. They probably have more go-faster stripes and fluffy dice on their Aston Martins, but other than that they are indistinguishable from the good guys.

So, those in the know probably understand how to check qualification and regulation at the drop of a hat – but how does the ordinary man in the street – or on the Clapham Omnibus – know how to do that? Does the public know that there are a few – very few I would add – regulated and qualified firms and individuals in the UK who are scammers? (Ok, there are masses offshore, but let’s concentrate just on our mainland for the time being).

And even if a member of the public does know how to do that, do they have any idea what else to check or verify? Again, the answer is: of course not. So why don’t we start with the basics: the FCA register. That ought to tell the enquirer whether a firm is regulated – but that is part of the problem: regulated for what exactly? A firm which is regulated for insurance mediation is not regulated for pension or investment advice. But the ordinary man in the street does not understand that. Then you’ve got qualifications; looking up an individual on the CII register might show up a “student” member, but a member of the public might not know that is not the same thing as a qualified member.

But then you have firms which are FCA regulated but which are still scammers – albeit very few to my knowledge (but still enough to cause sufficient damage to large numbers of victims). And, of course, offshore it is simply “open season”.

The creepy crawlies of the financial services world (ugh!)

Rather than trying to figure out how to spot a scammer, perhaps we should have a go at deciding what constitutes a scam and work backwards from there. The Cambridge dictionary defines a scam as “an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people“

The Business Dictionary defines a scam as “A fraudulent scheme performed by a dishonest individual, group, or company in an attempt to obtain money or something else of value. Scams traditionally resided in confidence tricks, where an individual would misrepresent themselves as someone with skill or authority, i.e. a doctor, lawyer, investor”

The classic financial services scam consists of an individual who purports to be a qualified adviser who is part of a firm which is licensed in the appropriate jurisdiction to provide the advice required – normally something to do with pensions and/or investments. Then the adviser, who has by now claimed to be “fully” qualified and regulated, will sell the unsuspecting client a scheme and/or investment which is not appropriate for their agreed risk profile. Often the word “independent” has gone out of the window, because the adviser will merely invest the client into whatever pays the adviser himself the most commission – and sometimes that is even his own fund for which he is promoter or distributor.

There are many variations on this theme – and many peripheral scammers providing cold-calling, lead generation and marketing services and loan facilities as well as spurious “introducers” which pose as quasi advisers. And then there are the accountants who sell tax-avoidance investment schemes and employee benefit trusts – resulting in heavy losses and tax liabilities. And then there are the UCIS providers peddling such rubbish such as collapsible holiday flats in an obscure part of Africa; oblong bits of tarmac not too far from an airport; truffle tree plantations; recycling inventions and empty tin cans.

If we keep it simple for now: how does the ordinary man in the street or on the Bakerloo Line check out a UK-based financial adviser? First check his qualifications; second check out that his firm is regulated by the FCA to provide the service being sought i.e. pension and/or investment advice; third ask for evidence of professional indemnity insurance; fourth check the solvency of the firm.

If the advisory firm goes bust and the client loses a large amount of money, the maximum the client can claim from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is £50,000 for investments. The best place to check solvency is Companies House where you can look up a company’s accounts and see how profitable and solvent it is. And then ask yourself whether you want to take financial advice from a firm which can’t even look after it’s own finances.

One example is an advisory firm in Guildford which has been trading for 21 years. For twelve of those years the company has made a loss. On total turnover of £11 million since it started trading, it has made a total profit of £36 thousand during the entire period. Would you want that firm to advise you on your finances?

So, my advice is check, check and check again. And when you think you have exhausted all the checks, get a second opinion. The information is out there – it is just a question of knowing where and how to look for it; what questions to ask and how to understand the answers. And then you’ll be a man, my friend. SMILEY FACE 🙂

What is a Pension Scam?

June 28, 2017