The family of a deceased man, who was conned out of his retirement savings after investing in the Norton Motorcycles pension scam, is to lose almost half the subsequent compensation award because of a little-known tax rule.<\/p>\n
A long-running battle to win an award from the Fraud Compensation Fund (FCF) meant that Robert Dewar\u2019s pension was not reimbursed until 2024, five years after his death at the age of 64.<\/p>\n
Dewar\u2019s widow, Susan, had been expecting to inherit his pension tax free, as is typically the case when a spouse dies before the age of 75<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, an obscure clause in HM Revenue and Customs rules means the transfer of the \u00a3114,000 owed will be taxed because it was made more than two years after death \u2013 leaving her facing a bill of about \u00a350,000.<\/p>\n The Dewars\u2019 daughter, Sally Holmes, said: \u201cOnce Dad had moved his pension, to what was classified at the time as a legitimate scheme, there was nothing we could do about what happened. The only way we could get any recourse was via the Fraud Compensation Fund, which had to take a number of years and so guaranteed the tax charge. It was inevitable because of the way the system has been set up.\u201d<\/p>\n The news of the probable tax bill is another blow for a family that became one of the most vocal campaigners during a long struggle to win compensation for victims.<\/p>\n The scandal began when more than 200 people fell victim to a \u201cpensions liberation fraud\u201d during 2012 and 2013<\/a>, when they were tricked into allowing about \u00a311.5m to be transferred out of their existing retirement plans.<\/p>\n Most of those funds were then transferred into three Norton pension schemes of which the company\u2019s former owner Stuart Garner was a trustee. The funds subsequently vanished after being invested directly into the heritage motoring brand, which dates back to the 19th century and has boasted high-profile devotees including the revolutionary Ernesto \u201cChe\u201d Guevara<\/a> and the actor Keanu Reeves<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2022, Garner pleaded guilty<\/a> to illegally investing millions of pounds of people\u2019s retirement savings into his own businesses. He received an eight-month prison sentence<\/a>, suspended for two years. Garner has always insisted he was also a victim of the initial liberation fraud.<\/p>\n The conviction represented a huge fall from grace for the entrepreneur, who had used Norton\u2019s brand to secure himself a cameo role in the 2015 Bond film Spectre and travelled with a government trade mission to China on Theresa May\u2019s jet when she was prime minister.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Last year, the FCF paid \u00a39.4m to the three retirement schemes that collapsed during the scandal, more than a decade after victims had seemingly lost their life savings.<\/p>\n