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THE director of a dissolved pensions firm has been ordered by The Pensions Ombudsman to pay £3,000 compensation to an investor and explain whether he invested her £19,000 into the Bitcoin Store.
Former journalist Pam Spooner transferred money from her Express Newspapers pension pot to Alternative Pensions Plan Trustees Ltd with the understanding it would be used to buy 113 Bitcoins.
However, the Kerswell Green-based firm then went bust without ever confirming where her investment had gone, according to ombudsman Anthony Arter's report.
Company director Ross White has until Wednesday (July 25) to provide proof that he invested the 64-year-old’s £18,924 pension fund into the Bitcoin Store, or if not, where it went.
“It’s just a pension transfer and me wanting to know where did the money go?" said Ms Spooner, who went to school in Malvern but now lives in the South West.
She said the money is her “only significant pension pot”, having moved around to various companies during her career, and after much research,had decided to invest it in Bitcoin.
She has been told by an independent financial adviser friend that it could be the highest pay out ever directed by The Pensions Ombudsman.
Ms Spooner transferred the money to APP – which is authorised by the HMRC and Pensions Regulator – in December 2014, receiving an invoice the following March to say it had been paid into the Bitcoin Store.
Months later she attempted to contact APP to get a pension drawdown by selling 13 bitcoins, which she calculated would be worth about £10,000 - later learning the company had been dissolved.
Ms Spooner said she then contacted various organisation’s such as Action Fraud and the Financial Conduct Authority, before take the case to the ombudsman with the ruling coming last week.
“It’s been a nightmare for the last three years,” said Ms Spooner. “All I’ve ever wanted to know is where he sent my money to? Did he put it in Bitcoin or has he still got it? I don’t know where my £19,000 went. That’s why the ombudsman came down heavily, I think.”
The report said Mr White had claimed an investment in the Bitcoin Store was not approved by the scheme’s financial advisor, “as it is not acceptable under HMRC’s rules and not approved by the plan”.
However, the ombudsman said if that was the case, the trustee “should not have proceeded with the investment” and advised Ms Spooner accordingly.
It added that if the investment had been made in Bitcoins then it is “probable that it would have grown substantially”.
“If the investment was made then Mr White should provide bank statements to show that a transfer to the Bitcoin Store was made,” the report said.
It said Mr White’s failure to answer this question both to the complainant and the ombudsman’s office, “amounted to maladministration and would have been a source of considerable distress”.
Mr White said: “This matter is still an open case with the ombudsman. To date, I have not received a reply to my most recent communication, although on contacting the WN they have a letter from the Pensions Ombudsman dated July 11.
"Many of the assertions contained in the determination have been refuted and I am still awaiting a return call from Christopher Rattigan [senior adjudicator].”
By Chris Vaughan
