Karen Turgut is a former office manager at Friendly Pension, which has been the subject of a TPR probe since 2015 over suspicions it was involved in pension liberation fraud.
Turgut has been fined £4,000 for not providing information to watchdog about Friendly Pension when compelled to do so. She has also been told to pay £550 costs and a £170 victim surcharge.
Turgut was asked by TPR investigators to answer questions to provide documents about emails she had sent and received during her time with the company and to answer further questions.
She did not respond to requests to help voluntarily, and still refused to co-operate after TPR notified her of her legal obligations.
At the time TPR said it believed around £13.7m had been lost to through Friendly Pension.
The watchdog issued Trugut a section 72 notice, which meant she had to comply or risk facing criminal proceedings.
Turgut continued to refuse to comply, so TPR took the case to court.
On 5 July, a Brighton Magistrates Court tried Turgut in her absence. She was convicted on one count of refusing to provide information and one count of refusing to produce documents under section 72 of the Pensions Act 2004.
‘Flagrant waste of resources’
Mike Birch, director of case management at TPR, said the conviction showed people would not be allowed to avoid complying with its investigations.
“We will not hesitate to prosecute those who prevent us gathering the data we require for our investigations,’ he said.
“Karen Turgut’s refusal to co-operate with our team was flagrant, without any excuse, and wasted our time and resources.
“Information notices are a key enforcement tool for TPR to help us tackle those abusing the system. Refusing to comply with a legal request from TPR will not be tolerated,” he said.
