The conviction last year of the GP Noble director and his imprisonment for eight years can now be published.
With the conclusion today of the trial of two other defendants, reporting restrictions have been lifted over other trials conducted last year in relation to a £52 million pension fund fraud.
In the first trial, which concluded in July 2011, Graham Pitcher (D.O.B 03/04/61) of Bury-St-Edmunds, Suffolk, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud for his involvement in the misuse of pension scheme funds managed by GP Noble Trustees Limited (“GP Noble”), a UK based pension trustee company. He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. Another defendant, Gary Cordell, the former operations manager of GP Noble, who was tried alongside Pitcher, was acquitted of any criminal involvement.
In a separate trial Quentin Russell (D.O.B 18/08/57) of Haslemere, Surrey was convicted on 30 September 2011 of fraud and forgery offences. He was sentenced on 3 January 2012 to 15 months’ imprisonment.
The trial of Anthony James Morris and Peter Malmstrom for their alleged involvement in the fraud concluded today. Both men were acquitted on all counts.
Case outline
GP Noble (now in liquidation) was an independent trustee company registered in the UK and based in Nottingham. At the time of the offences, its principal director was Pitcher. GP Noble administered a large number of occupational pension schemes. Many of the schemes related to companies which had become insolvent and/or had gone into liquidation.
In August 2007, Pitcher removed £30 million of six of these schemes’ funds from reputable UK based investment houses and reinvested the funds in a British Virgin Island (BVI) company, Fareston Limited, which had been formed immediately beforehand. This was done without consulting the other directors of GP Noble, who would not have sanctioned this conduct had they known. These funds were used by Pitcher and others for fraudulent purposes, including the payment huge unwarranted fees and loans.
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