Former Norton boss confident pensioners will get their cash back

Former Norton Motorcycles boss Stuart Garner has said stakeholders who invested millions in pension schemes he ran will receive their money back.

Garner, who was this week accused of acting “dishonestly” by the Pensions Ombudsman and was ordered to pay back all the cash Norton pensioners had invested, told Leicestershire Live that the cash “is not missing”.

He said: “I’ve worked with BDO who are sitting on £16 million cash from [the] Norton asset sale with a further several million expected to come in from Norton property sales.

“The money is not “missing”. It is all in the business and its assets.

“No-one has agreed what the pension investor amount is yet. But with £16 million in cash and several million of property assets to come in, it looks likely they will receive all their capital back.”

On Wednesday (24 June), the Pensions Ombudsman has ruled that Garner acted “dishonestly” after he had been investigated over allegations that he repeatedly failed to return funds to the Commando 2012 Pension Scheme, the Donington MC Pension Scheme, and the Dominator 2012 Pension Scheme

The Pension Schemes Act requires trustees to transfer pensions within six months of an application. However, Garner invested all of the cash into struggling Norton.

Norton Motorcyles fell into administration in January, but was sold out to Indian firm TVS Motors in April in a £16m deal.

In its determination, the Pensions Ombudsman found that:

“The Trustee [Garner] acted dishonestly and in breach of his duty of no conflict, his duty not to profit and his duty to act with prudence; and the investments made by the [Garner into Norton] on behalf of each of the Schemes were made in breach of the Trustee’s statutory, investment and trust law duties.

The money owed is thought to be around £14m. Garner must also pay £180,000 to the original 30 applicants for “exceptional maladministration causing injustice”.