A healthcare company has pleaded guilty for providing false or misleading information to The Pensions Regulator (TPR) over its compliance with auto-enrolment (AE) regulations.
Crest Healthcare and its managing director Sheila Aluko not only pleaded guilty to misleading the regulator, but also admitted to wilfully failing to comply with their AE duties.
In March 2016, Aluko submitted a declaration of compliance to TPR claiming that the employer had met its duties. She claimed that staff had been written to about the pension scheme and said 25 employees were enrolled into a workplace pension.
In reality, a pension scheme had not been completely set up, no staff had been automatically enrolled and the company had not written to staff to inform them about AE. No pension contributions had been paid.
Later it began deducting pension contributions from the wages of some workers, but kept them in the company’s bank account and did not pay them into a pension scheme for more than eight months.
Only after a whistleblower raised the alarm – and TPR executed a search warrant at Crest Healthcare’s offices and interviewed Aluko under caution – was the pension scheme set up and contributions paid in.
‘Sheila Aluko tried to conceal her company’s non-compliance by hiding behind false information and misleading her staff that their pensions were up and running,’ said Darren Ryder, TPR’s Director of Automatic Enrolment. ‘It was only after we intervened that the employer finally complied with its duties and provided its staff with the workplace pensions they were entitled to.'
Crest Healthcare and Sheila Aluko each pleaded guilty to one charge of knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to TPR and two charges of wilfully failing to comply with their AE duties when they appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court. The case was adjourned for sentencing until 15 May.
Ryder added: ‘While the majority of employers are doing the right thing, this case sends a clear message that it is unacceptable to dodge your pension responsibilities – and that we will take action against those who try to.’
