On the go: A Bradford-based accounts manager lied to investigators to try to hide the fact that restaurants had not given their employees workplace pensions.
Mansoor Nasir submitted false declarations of workplace pension compliance to the Pensions Regulator, claiming that nine restaurants were giving their staff the correct benefits.
When the regulator investigated, it found Nasir had failed to automatically enrol into workplace pensions 103 employees at the restaurants that he was the payroll adviser for, and he had attempted to cover this up by using the false declarations.
The offences involved staff at the Akbar chain of businesses in restaurants in Yorkshire, Manchester, Birmingham and the North East between September 2014 and May 2017.
Nasir appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on January 9 2019, and pleaded guilty to nine charges of knowingly or recklessly providing the regulator with false or misleading information, contrary to section 80 of the Pensions Act 2004.
Joe Turner, the Pensions Regulator’s head of compliance and enforcement, said: “Giving us false or misleading information is a serious offence that can earn you a fine, a prison sentence and a criminal record.
"All employers have workplace pension duties. Don’t take a risk that could affect you for the rest of your life.”
Nasir, who is based at Beaumont Management Services in Duncombe Road, Bradford, will be sentenced at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on February 6.
