The Pensions Regulator has prosecuted Stotts Tours for its deliberate avoidance of its workplace pension duties.

According to TPR, the bus company and its managing director Alan Stott will have to pay more than £60,000 after they admitted to deliberately trying avoid enrolling staff into a workplace pension.

The firm and its managing director appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court yesterday, 7 February. Stotts Tours (Oldham) was ordered to pay a fine of £27,000, £7,400 of costs and a £120 victim surcharge. Stott was also ordered to pay a £4,455 fine and a £120 victim surcharge.

These fines are in addition to the £14,400 owed in civil fines that the employer must pay for failing to comply with the law on auto-enrolment.

In November 2017, Stotts Tours and Stott pleaded guilty to 16 offences of wilfully failing to comply with the law regarding auto-enrolment. This was the first prosecution of its kind by TPR.

Stotts Tours was expected to enrol its staff into a workplace pension and initiated payment of contributions from June 2015.

As a result, Stotts Tours must also pay an estimated £10,000 in backdates pension contributions for its staff, as well as paying ongoing contributions that are due. If the firm fails to do this it will face further enforcement actions from the regulator.

Commenting on the situation, district judge Teresa Szagun said: “Initially Mr Stott’s attitude was to bury his head in the sand. This later left him in a position where he was out of his depth.”

TPR director of automatic enrolment Darren Ryder added: “Compliance with automatic enrolment remains very high and so it’s extremely disappointing that a tiny minority of employers continue to flout the law by denying their staff the pensions they are entitled to.

“This case shows the cost to employers that failing to comply with automatic enrolment can bring – a bill of tens of thousands of pounds, a criminal conviction and a damaged reputation.”

Earlier this week TPR fined Pakistan International Airlines for failing to audit its accounts on time for two years in a row and NOW: Pensions' trustee was fined £70,000 for ongoing administrative failings.

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