Dodgy Pension Trustee

MrUnhappy

In February 2013, I arranged to transfer two pension plans, one from HSBC and another from ReAssure that I had been paying in to, via an independent company called Green footprint Investments. After numerous calls to Green Footprint with regard to the relevant paperwork, they informed me that the retirement plans were being handled by a Mr Mark Harris of AC Management & Administration Ltd, part of Alexandra Chambers Ltd.

After numerous calls to Mr Harris, who for some strange reason will not take telephone calls and can only be contacted via email or by leaving a contact number so he can call you back, which he never does. In fact the only time Mr Harris actually called back was when I left a message saying that if he didn’t call me back before close of office the matter was being reported to The Serious Fraud Office.

Mr Harris then said he would post me the relevant paperwork that day, a week later I emailed Mr Harris as to where the documentation was, he stated, via email, it must have got lost in the post and he would email me a copy. One week later, still no paperwork, again emailed and the reply was that he had accidently emailed it to the wrong address.
The next day, I received the “official documentation” via email. My 10 year old daughter could have knocked something up on her computer that was more convincing!!


Again I emailed Mr Harris stating that this was far from official documentation and that it was just an admission that he had received my money. The details are also incorrect as ReAssure had refused to release any monies to Mr Harris as he hadn’t returned the relevant information that they required before releasing the funds.

Another email, asking Mr Harris where the annual statement was, the reply, on the 12th February was that he was awaiting some information relating to an investment and also the tax position on the funds but would get one to me within 7 to 10 days time.

As of today, this statement has still not arrived and his response yet again, was that it must have been lost in the post but would get another one sent out or emailed.

Mr Harris has now ignored numerous requests from both myself and my authorized Financial Adviser to transfer the funds.

Mr Harris has been informed that I would take this action and would also report this matter to all relevant bodies including Action Fraud but still chooses to ignore my requests. In my opinion this is not the way a so called professional person acts and his actions raise the doubt as to whether or not he is in fact a qualified solicitor.
Tried reporting him to the SRA, but surprise surprise, he is not regulated.
Any advise would be most welcome

atush

Sounds to me you fell for a scam.

Linton

I fear your only course of action is to follow the FCA's recommended actions here. Unregulated "green" investing is one area where scams are common.

A bit of googling tells me that Mark Harris and Sheila Bedwell are the only directors of Alexandra Chambers Limited and that Mark Harris is the only director of A C Management and Administration.

None of A C Management, Alexandra Chambers, Green Footprint Investments and Taurus Business Consulting (who own Green Footprint) appear to be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Triumph13

Whilst I'm generally opposed to the 'nanny state' mentality, it does make me wonder whether the 'freedom' to put pensions into unregulated assets does actually make sense.

If they were banned, then at least the govt would get a tax take when people took the money out of the pension to give it to the scammer!

wallpaperman

Without wishing to alarm you any further, the pension company that I work for has A C Management on the, shall we say, 'take extra care with' list.

Good luck, hope this is just a blip, and you get everything sorted to your satisfaction.

MrUnhappy

Could you provide me with a bit more info on AC management with regard to the "take extra care" list. Are they a genuine company??
Many thanks

dunstonh

Most pension providers have a watchlist of potentially dodgy companies. They cant come out and say that but that is effectively the position.

The whole offshore investing in unregulated investments, such as carbon credits, land, forestry etc is rife with scams. The whole lot falls outside of UK regulation in most cases and the people doing the transactions are usually unregulated as well. So, more recently, pension providers have started questioning people who wish to transfer to schemes on their watchlist. Mainly in an attempt to try and prevent them from being caught up in a fraud. However, the pension provider has very limited scope to act and risks breaching the law if they do not let you transfer it within a certain timescale. Although the regulator and pensions ombudsman does seem to be giving them some grace on this.

MrUnhappy

Whilst at first I was under the impression that my plans were being invested in "Green products" it says on the only documentation that I have had from the AC Management and administration Ltd jokers it states that my money is in A fixed income retirement plan, whatever that is???

princeofpounds

A fixed income retirement plan

All that means is that you are supposedly in some type of plan which involveds fixed income investments (eg buying the debt of a company or similar that pay a fixed interest payment to you).

What relationship it actually bears to reality or what your expectations are I do not know.

You have probably ended up in an unregulated collective investment scheme, and an offshore one to boot I wager.

http://www.moneyobserver.com/news/10-06-2013/what-you-need-to-know-about-ucis

http://www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-products/investments/ucis

and many other links...

magpiecottage

Why did your financial adviser recommend that you transfer to this outfit? It sounds like you have a valid complaint against him or her.

You want to move fast before his professional indemnity policy comes up for renewal and scams of this kind are excluded from it.

enator

If ReAssure have not released your funds yet, I would get on the phone pronto to cancel the transaction.