THE director of a dissolved pensions firm has been ordered by The Pensions Ombudsman to pay £3,000 compensation to an investor and confirm whether he paid 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 (APP) 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.

APP 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 she said is authorised by the HMRC and Pensions Regulator – in December 2014, receiving an invoice from APP the following March to say it would be paid into the Bitcoin Store.

In July 2015 she attempted to contact APP to get a pension drawdown by selling 13 bitcoins, which she calculated would be worth about £10,000. 

APP failed to confirm the status of her pension and whether it had been invested in Bitcoin. The company was then dissolved in December 2015, but Ms Spooner was not informed of this at the time.

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.”

Mr Arter's report said Mr White had "not provided a copy of the Trust Deed and Rules of the Plan to this office or confirmation of the investment in Bitcoin Store".

"As those acts occurred before the trustee company was dissolved, the adjudicator considered that it did not absolve the trustee of any liability."

The report said Mr White, when approached by the ombudsman, 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” by now.

“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”.

Speaking to the Worcester News on Wednesday, Mr White claimed he had not received the ombudsman's determination, which senior adjudicator Christopher Rattigan said had been sent to both parties.

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 Worcester News 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,” he added.