The Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra) has successfully prosecuted a company director of a Yorkshire bakery for dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit and fraudulently evading paying employee pension contributions to the pension scheme provider.

At Leeds Crown Court, Mr David Frederick Watson, former managing director of Watson's Bakeries Ltd based in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, received a conditional discharge for two years and was ordered to pay £;5,000 costs to Opra after pleading guilty to seven offences under the Pensions Schemes Act 1993, and one offence under the Theft Act 1968. This is the first time Opra has prosecuted for an offence that is not within the Pensions Act 1995.

Since 1993, Watson's Bakeries Ltd had offered its employees a group personal pension scheme run by Scottish Provident. The scheme had 16 members who contributed a percentage of their salary into their pension fund; this was supplemented by a contribution from Watson's Bakeries Ltd. During the period of December 2001 through to June 2002, Scottish Provident did not receive any employee contributions into the scheme. Opra's investigation followed reports it received from an employee and the pension scheme provider.

The criminal offence of fraudulent evasion is committed where there is fraudulent evasion of the employer's requirement to pay pension contributions deducted from employees' earnings to the pension provider. Employers must ensure that employee contributions are collected and sent to the scheme provider administering the scheme by the 19th day of the month immediately following the month of deduction.

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Source:
www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=126103