Top 10 stories of 2022: Number 7 – Motorcycle boss’s fall from grace culminates in suspended sentence

In the run-up to the Christmas break, we’ll be looking back over 2022 to rediscover our top 10 most popular stories of the year.

Our seventh best-read story of the year involves the erstwhile owner of an iconic British motorcycle brand.

In March it was revealed that former Norton Motorcyles boss Stuart Garner had been handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to three charges of breaching employer-related investment (ERI) rules.

The judgement marked the culmination of a saga that began some 24 months prior to his appearance at Derby Crown Court on 28 February.

Garner’s fall from grace was meteoric. Back in 2015, he was being held up by the Government as one of the beacons of a post-Brexit Britain. None other than George Osborne had taken to social media to sing Norton’s praises, while Garner was feted as the saviour and custodian of the iconic brand.

Times, it seems, move as fast as the Norton Commando.

Just a few years later, Garner wound up in court after admitting illegally investing £11m into the business from three pension schemes for which he was the sole trustee.

In November 2019, Garner had appealed for investment in the brand, ostensibly to raise £1m which would be put towards the manufacture of Norton’s V4 superbike and 650 models.

Days after a crowdfunding campaign was launched, Norton was approached by a mystery investor who offered to stump up the entire amount it was seeking to raise.

And yet, just two months later, the company was placed into administration after reportedly failing to pay a £300,000 tax bill. It subsequently emerged that pension schemes related to the company were under investigation.

Garner failed to show up in front of the Pensions Ombudsman when summoned, and two weeks later TheBusinessDesk.com was contacted by a man who had lost £65,000 as a result of the scandal.

Richard Jones said he should be enjoying £300 a month in income from one of the pension schemes set up by Garner and a lump sum of £18,000, but was in danger of losing out after Norton entered administration.

The company was eventually sold to TVS, and by June Garner was saying that stakeholders who invested millions in pension schemes he ran would receive their money back.

But the ombudsman accused him of acting “dishonestly” and ordered him to pay back all the cash Norton pensioners had invested. Garner responded by protesting that the money was “not missing.”

What followed has been widely reported.

Thankfully the Norton story goes on, and the firm appears to be on the up – no doubt glad that the Garner era has been firmly consigned to the rear-view mirror.