Brewery and chairman fined around £28,000 for failing to provide pension details

Tadcaster brewery firm Samuel Smith and its chairman have been fined around £28,000 after failing to hand over information about its pension scheme.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) requested information about Samuel Smith Old Brewery’s financial position after a 2015 valuation of the company’s final salary pension schemes relating to its 2,000 employees. The information was required to understand whether pension schemes were being adequately supported, said TPR.

However, the information was not provided by the deadline. The TPR said the information was provided three months after the deadline expired, after criminal proceedings had commenced.

At Brighton Magistrates’ Court yesterday, chairman Humphrey Smith was fined £8,000 and Samuel Smith Old Brewery fined £18,750. They were also ordered to pay £1,240 in costs and victim surcharges.

Both pleaded guilty at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 15 May to neglecting or refusing to provide information and documents without a reasonable excuse, contrary to the Pensions Act 2004. TPR said that Humphrey Smith was charged on the basis that he consented to or connived in the offence by the company, or caused it by his neglect.

Samuel Smith Old Brewery, which was established in 1758 and is one of the country’s oldest breweries, owns and operates around 300 pubs nationwide

After the court hearing, Nicola Parish, TPR’s executive director of frontline regulation, said: “Mr Smith and the brewery could have avoided this fine and a criminal conviction by simply complying with our notice requiring the information to be provided.

“Our ability to request information is a necessary part of our regulatory toolkit and we take it very seriously when parties do not co-operate with us.

“People who ignore our notices asking them to provide information should expect us to launch a criminal prosecution.

“As Mr Smith has discovered, becoming compliant with our requests after a court summons has been served will not halt criminal proceedings.”