Pension companies Gleeson Bessent Trustee Services (GBTS) and Gleeson Bessent Trustees (GBT) were wound up in the public interest by the courts in March 2017.
Roger Bessent and Tracy Park were directors of GBTS; while Roger Bessent, Matthew Bessent and Neil O’Donnell were all directors of GBT.
The four admitted they hadn’t properly performed their roles and exposed the pensions to great risk.
They admitted “operating with a lack of transparency designed to persuade or encourage the public […] to transfer pension funds into pension schemes which relied on high risk investments”.
The quartet accepted six instances of unfit behaviour, including failing to comply with legislation and guidance.
Banned
With bans effective from November 2017, Roger Bessent was disqualified for nine years, Tracy Park for five years and Neil O’Donnell for three-and-a-half years.
Matthew Bessent was disqualified for three-and-a-half years effective from 27 June 2018.
GBTS provided pension trustee and administration services to occupational pension schemes and GBT was the trustee of three of those schemes.
The bans means they cannot run a company directly or on behalf of someone else.
