TPR forces fraudster to repay nearly £300,000 defrauded from charity’s pension scheme
07 September 2020
Patrick McLarry, a former charity boss, has been ordered to repay £286,852 to the Yately Industries for the Disabled Pension Scheme to compensate members for the sums he stole, after appearing at Salisbury Crown Court on 4 September. In addition, he was also ordered to pay £71,477 to cover legal costs incurred by The Pensions Regulator (TPR).
Payment for these amounts need to be made in full within three months or Mr McLarry will face an additional three-year prison and will still be required to pay the monies back into the scheme.
Erica Carroll, TPR’s director of enforcement, said:
“McLarry abused his position to steal money from the scheme’s members, money which was supposed to help pay for their retirement. Instead, he spent the money on himself.
“He received a lengthy jail sentence for his crime and quite rightly he must now return the money he stole back to the pension scheme for the benefit of its members. If he fails to hand over the cash, he will have to serve an extra three years in jail and still have to pay up.
“TPR will not flinch from using every weapon in our arsenal to tackle pension fraudsters and will continue to protect savers’ retirements.”
In February, the former charity boss was jailed for five years and banned from being a director for eight years.
For the duration of the period that the fraud took place, Mr McLarry was the chief executive and chairman of the charity, and a director of VerdePlanet Limited, the corporate trustee of the charity’s pension scheme.
During an investigation carried out by TPR, prior to VerdePlanet being assigned, the corporate trustee had amended the scheme’s conclusive deed which meant that the scheme was unable to pursue Mr McLarry for the funds that he then went on to take.
Throughout the periods between March 2012 and February 2013, he arranged for £256,127 to be transferred from the charity pension scheme into a bank account which he controlled. The court were also advised that documents were then forged to mislead TPR investigators and an attempt to conceal his wrongdoings. Vital information, such as bank statements, were withheld from TPR during the investigation, which later resulted in prosecution in April 2017.
TPR reported that he spent the cash on a home and warehouse in the south of France, along with further houses in Hartley Wintney and Hampshire. Stolen funds were also used to clear debts relating to a pub Mr McLarry had leased in Portsmouth.