This is a blog by the unstoppable Angie Brooks and can be found in its original on her Pension Life website (link to the article is here).
The biggest problem in financial services worldwide – for the past 16 years – has been fraud. But it’s not just the fraudsters who are the problem: in the UK it is the apathy and ineptitude of the Serious Fraud Office which fails to stop fraudsters from becoming SERIAL fraudsters.
The armies of spivs, conmen, shysters, swindlers and scammers stretch across the globe. These criminals are the perpetrators of billions of pounds’ worth of fraud every year. Since 2010 (and also long before) the fraudsters include so-called financial advisers, introducers, pension trustees, insurance bond providers and the asset providers. This entire criminal industry is fuelled by the dodgy investments which pay the huge commissions to the fraudsters.
The list of perpetrators is long and varied – but, sadly, it has also included lawyers and recently even a judge.
Limp law enforcement, governance and regulation in the UK and beyond are partly to blame. Plus the failure of any party to admit the part they played in any one of the many frauds this century. They all claim “it wasn’t me guv – it was the others”. And meanwhile, the people at the Serious Fraud Office stand by and shrug their shoulders – merely picking off some of the easiest low-hanging fruit (if they can be bothered).
But a glimmer of hope for the many thousands of victims has recently emerged in the form of the Fraud Compensation Fund. This is only for members of fraudulently-run occupational pension schemes in the UK. And the fund only pays out the equivalent of what each victim had paid into a fraudulent scheme (up to 16 years previously) – and does not compensate the considerable lack of growth and interest.
The Fraud Compensation Fund (FCF) is funded by a levy paid by UK occupational pension schemes.
The FCF answers to the Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions and is run by the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). The FCF’s mission is to ensure that members of fraudulently-run pension schemes receive appropriate compensation for their losses caused by dishonesty and fraud. (With “appropriate” meaning “as little as possible” – and certainly not making up for loss of growth for a decade or more.)
This is good news for victims of fraud. But not such great news for the ethical, honest sector of the pension-provision world – as they have to pay for the damage done by the fraudsters.
However, what is unbelievable is why ALL the fraudsters aren’t being prosecuted and imprisoned – to send out a clear message to other fraudsters that society, the judiciary and law enforcement will not tolerate fraud. We have the “Serious Fraud Office” – whose name seems to suggest it ought to be serious about pursuing these criminals with alacrity. But, instead, there is just a deafening silence from their sirens in most cases.
Maybe the work of the Fraud Compensation Fund will now help galvanise the SFO into action? After all, hard evidence that fraud has indeed been committed doesn’t come much better than a declaration by a government-run outfit confirming that a pension scheme has been run dishonestly and/or fraudulently.
So just to help the sleepy SFO out, here is a list of a few of the pension schemes which the FCF has definitely found to have been run fraudulently. Hopefully, the chaps at the SFO will read this between coffee breaks and then leap into action and start chasing these bad guys – all sirens blazing. After all, actually doing some fraudster hunting must be better than just sitting around and swiping left all day long?
5G Futures; Alderley Wealth; Andavis Pension Scheme; APG Maria; Ark; Athena Schemes; Becker Fellowes Schemes; Brambles 1 and 2; Business Way Pension Scheme; BWFS; Capita Oak; CBC; Conder LPA; Ecroignard Schemes; Ex Chalcedon Schemes; Fast Pensions; Gleeson; Henley; Liverpool Schemes; London Quantum; Mendip; Milton Schemes; Norton Schemes; Optimum/Blackbird; Organic Insurance; Pablo Schemes; Pennines; Pinnacle; Salmon Enterprises; Speed-E Cash; TAH Stork; Target Victor; TWM Pension Trust; Vireo; Westminster
There are well over 150 schemes and sub schemes in total (and a few hundred million quid’s worth of fraud). So that should be enough to keep some of you SFO employees out of mischief for the rest of this year? And just to help you out a bit more, here are the names of some of the perps behind a few of the schemes (we can provide contact details if you are struggling to locate them):
ARK: Stephen Ward, Alan Fowler, Craig Tweedley, Julian Hanson, Andrew Isles
CAPITA OAK: Stephen Ward, Alan Fowler, James Hadley
FAST PENSIONS: Peter Moat, Sarah Moat
FRIENDLY PENSIONS: Julian Hanson, Alan Barratt, Susan Dalton and David Austin (deceased – so don’t bother chasing him)
HENLEY RETIREMENT BENEFIT SCHEME: James Hadley
LONDON QUANTUM: Stephen Ward
SALMON ENTERPRISES: Andrew Meeson, Peter Bradley, James Lao
WESTMINSTER: James Hadley
So, my dear fellows at the Sleepy Failed Office, if you can bear to tear yourselves away from this week’s “Big’n Bouncy”, you may spot something significant in the above list. And that something is: repeat offending. Look at Stephen Ward: he was behind Ark, Capita Oak and London Quantum (as well as plenty of others). Look at Julian Hanson: he was behind Ark and Friendly Pensions. Look at James Hadley: he was behind Capita Oak and Henley and Westminster. Shouldn’t they both be behind bars? And don’t forget, Stephen Ward also defrauded many thousands of victims with bad pension-transfer advice and James Hadley went on to run the £25 million Trafalgar Multi Asset fraud which the High Court declared to be “an illegal conspiracy to extract commissions from the investments”.
The only perps who have been convicted and sent to prison so far – in SIXTEEN years of perpetrating fraud and ruining thousands of lives – have been Alan Barratt and Susan Dalton. The two trustees of the Salmon Enterprises fraud – Andrew Meeson and Peter Bradley – were convicted and jailed for tax fraud, but have never been prosecuted for fraud against the members.
The first non-lawyer to become director of the SFO stepped down halfway through his five-year tenure at the beginning of 2026. Nick Ephgrave – a former police officer – declared that it was “time to draw a close on time in public life”.
After promising all sorts of exciting improvements to the Slow Feeble Office – such as faster case progression, the introduction of a case management system and improved policy – he simply couldn’t be bothered any more and retired in comfort and peace on a nice fat pension.
Ephgrave had originally declared that he would “turn the beleaguered agency around”. But the only thing he turned around was himself. Did he jump or was he pushed? Were the apathy and feebleness of the SFO just too big a challenge for any mere human (on a huge salary and massive public sector pension)? We will never know.
All we do know for sure was that Nick (that’s an interesting name!) just “Ephed” off long before he could be accused of failing like all his predecessors.
And finally, we should look at the main facilitator of all of these fraudulent occupational pension schemes. Who is it who registers them? Who is it that does zero due diligence to check the occupational schemes have genuine sponsoring employers? Who is it that fails to deregister schemes when it becomes obvious (quite quickly, usually) that they are being operated fraudulently? Our good old friends HMRC!
But here’s the real kicker: HMRC then pursues (and if necessary bankrupts) the victims who face not only losing their pensions but also gaining huge tax bills for “loans” they had been conned into taking. These tax penalties remain payable even though the loans have been paid back. And some victims are still taxed even if they didn’t receive a loan – purely because they had “intended” receiving a loan.
