A greedy chartered accountant who stole a pension fund of almost £300,000 to buy a house for his daughter and support her husband’s business has been jailed for 40 months.
Roger Bessent, 66, of Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, dipped into the £17.4m pot to splash out on a four-bedroom house for his unsuspecting daughter.
He used the remaining money to finance her children’s nursery and set up a sports injury clinic for her physiotherapist husband.
Roger Bessent, 66, of Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, dipped into the £17.4m pot to splash out on a four-bedroom house for his unsuspecting daughter. Bessent is pictured here outside Preston Crown Court
The grandfather was caught after an investigation by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Insolvency Service into the Focusplay Retirement Benefit Scheme where he was a trustee and administrator
The grandfather was caught after an investigation by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Insolvency Service into the Focusplay Retirement Benefit Scheme where he was a trustee and administrator.
It emerged he had faked the minutes of board meetings to cover his tracks and illegally used some of the pension contributions to finance other companies he ran and pay tax bills.
He has since paid back £78,800 but faces further court action in July to make him repay the rest. Another trustee has since been appointed to the pension scheme.
Bessent was jailed for 40 months at Preston Crown Court in the first case of its kind brought by the TPR.
He admitted seven charges of fraud and acting as a director while disqualified after it emerged he had been running his accountancy practise Gleeson Bessent Ltd in Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston, whilst banned from running a company for nine years.
He has been nicknamed after the late Robert Maxwell who used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies’ pension funds to save himself from bankruptcy.
The court heard Bessent had been running the fund on behalf of 305 members who had making monthly contributions since April 2013. But between October 2014 and December 2016 he transferred £292,886.98 from the scheme into other accounts.
He used £121,000 so he could buy a house in Broughton, Preston, for his daughter and son-in-law then paid a further £104,000 towards the running costs of her nursery Little Rascals which had to temporarily close due to an Ofsted inspection. A further £35,600 from the pension scheme went towards starting up his son-in-law’s sports injury clinic Salvador Health and Recovery Ltd.
Mr Will Hays prosecuting for the TPR said: ‘The defendant’s conduct demonstrates quite astonishing arrogance on his part. In his trusted position he could use other people’s money for his own purposes and he appears to have been driven by a mixture of motivations.
‘First, greed as he had a financial interest in every beneficiary of every transfer. Secondly there was a desire by him to be seen as a successful and beneficent investor.
‘It appears the house was for his daughter to live in, and many of the companies which benefited from the payments had a family connection. In reality the only reason he could maintain the pretence of a successful entrepreneur was because of his trusted access to a pool of other people’s hard-earned money.’
The Insolvency Service began investigating in August 2016 after Bessent replaced one company he ran to administrate the pension fund with another. He immediately began attempted to pay back the missing money and tried to claim payments from the fund were made in the form of loans but money but subsequently admitted wrongdoing.
The court heard Bessent had been running the fund on behalf of 305 members who had making monthly contributions since April 2013. But between October 2014 and December 2016 he transferred £292,886.98 from the scheme into other accounts
Sentencing Bessent, Judge Nicholas Barker told him: ‘Your selfish and greedy acts targeted ordinary, hard-working people who trusted you to invest their money to provide for their retirement. This system relies on trust – but it’s that trust you breached. You used their money as your own. You knew what you were doing was dishonest and wrong.’
In mitigation defence lawyer Dan Thomas said: ‘Mr Bessent understands the moral obligation to pay back the money and that is what he is doing. This in no way extinguishes the dishonesty that happened prior to that but it does show Mr Bessent’s intention to clear up this mess.’
Mr Thomas added: ‘He bitterly regrets his actions and is in debt. Character references on his behalf tell of some shock that a man whom they speak of as a man of integrity is faced with these charges. They speak of his hard work ethic, they regard him as a friend who they could turn to when times were tough. They also frequently mention his charity work. One gentleman who worked for Mr Bessent spoke of him as a mentor.
‘Another said she knew him as a boy and speaks of his personal qualities – this is a picture far from the arrogant dishonest person portrayed by the crown. He is a hardworking, benevolent friend and boss as well.’
But after the case Nicola Parish, TPR’s Executive Director of Frontline Regulation said: ‘This sentence shows how seriously the courts take the theft of people’s hard-earned savings.
‘Trustees should be in no doubt that if they abuse their position like Bessent did they should be prepared to go to prison.’
John Fitzsimmons, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, added: ‘We welcome the court’s decision to jail Roger Bessent. Working in tandem with TPR, we will put a stop to those unscrupulous company directors who think they are above the law.’