On the go: The former head of a charity for the disabled has pleaded not guilty to defrauding the charity’s pension scheme at a hearing at Winchester Crown Court on Tuesday.
Patrick McLarry, 70, the former chief executive of Hampshire-based Yateley Industries for the Disabled Limited, is accused of transferring more than £250,000 from the organisation’s pension fund.
His wife, Sandra McLarry, 59, also pleaded not guilty to four charges of money laundering – the first time that the Pensions Regulator has brought a prosecution for this offence.
The offences are said to have taken place between April 2011 and September 2013, when Mr McLarry was both the chief executive and chairman of the charity and a director of the corporate trustee of the charity’s pension scheme. Mrs McLarry was the secretary of the Hampshire-based charity’s board.
It is not the first time Mr McLarry has been before the court. In 2017, he was ordered to pay £6,500 for refusing to give information linked to an investigation into unusual scheme investments to the regulator, despite being pursued for them for more than 18 months.
The couple were bailed and the case has been listed for trial on November 11 at Salisbury Crown Court.
