Ex-ATT president pleads not guilty to £5m fraud

FORMER ATT PRESIDENT Andrew Meeson has pleaded not guilty to charges that his company defrauded HM Revenue & Customs by more than £5m through a “fictitious” pension scheme.

The former president of the Association of Taxation Technicians (pictured), alongside business associates Peter Spencer Bradley, Alison Jayne Bradley and Steven Price, have denied charges they registered the Moya pension scheme to make false tax relief claims between 1 January 2006 and 30 April 2010, reports sister publication Professional Pensions.

The charge sheet alleges the defendants made tax relief claims on contributions “that had not been made”.

A second charge which claimed the four defendants knowingly used a false passport in the name of Shaun Stokes was dropped at a hearing.

Fourth defendant Steven Price is facing three further charges and will plead guilty to two charges of forgery for creating a false passport and a driving license in the name of Shaun Stokes in 2003.

Price will plead not guilty to acquiring criminal property through the false tax relief claims from the Moya pension scheme made by or on behalf of Tudor Capital Management Ltd between 1 June 2007 and 30 April 2010.

Meeson, Peter Spencer Bradley and Alison Jayne Bradley are directors of pensions administration firm Tudor Capital Management Ltd, which was suspended by The Pensions Regulator from acting as trustees of schemes in conjunction with the HMRC investigation.

The four defendants were charged in October last year.

Meeson stepped frown from his position as president of the ATT the week before the charges were announced on 31 October 2011.

At the time, Meeson said: “I and my colleagues at TCM reject these allegations in their entirety and we will be fighting hard to clear our names.

“Nevertheless, the case now looks likely to come to court in the second half of 2012. Given this, it is proper that I stand down from the presidency and trusteeship of the ATT.”

The trial is likely to begin in January 2013.