Case study 1:
The refusal of one man’s pension provider to agree to a transfer saved him from losing more than £50,000 to the scam.
Donald (not his real name), 57, was cold-called by Dalton in February 2013 and told that if he transferred his pensions from two companies to her scheme he would get a guaranteed return of at least 5% a year, plus a 10% cash lump sum upfront.
But while one of his pension providers agreed to the transfer of his £17,000 pot, the other refused to transfer his £58,000 pot. Instead, ReAssure rejected a series of letters from companies linked to the scammers, saying it was not satisfied that the receiving scheme was a valid one. Eventually, the scammers gave up trying to persuade ReAssure to make the transfer.
When he reached 55 in 2015, Donald contacted Dalton to ask to draw down 25% of his pension. But she claimed he had never transferred his pension and then ignored his calls and emails – prompting Donald to call Action Fraud.
He said: “If ReAssure had allowed my pension to be transferred it would have been a disaster. I would have lost everything. I have had a very lucky escape.
“My wife and I were council tenants so Susan Dalton should have realised that we did not have lots of money and that our pensions were an important source of income to us. She totally misled me into transferring my pension and paid no regard for my financial well-being.
“She told me what I wanted to hear and I believed it. Looking back now, everything was basically a lie or a betrayal. I was naive. I was conned by a professional con merchant.”
