John Quarrell: “We have done nothing wrong”

Quarrell - a former Association of Pension Lawyers chairman and head of pensions at Nabarro Nathanson - said he had done "nothing wrong" and accused the regulator of subjecting him to a process "worse than a witch-hunt".

He told PP: "We have nothing to feel ashamed about and we have done nothing wrong."

He added: "Both myself and my partner have been absolved from any act of impropriety and any act of misappropriation. All our clients' money is safe."

However, Quarrell said he was unlikely to appeal the determination. He said: "What is the point."

He added: "In the course of the last two years we have something like 30 different individuals from three different regulators through our offices. We had twice as many individuals from regulatory bodies through our offices than at our height we had staff. Isn't that overdoing it a bit? How many people did they pile into banks?

"We have been cleared of any impropriety and we have been cleared of any act of misappropriation of assets."

Quarrell added: "It is worse than a witch-hunt. They are now having to justify why they expended so much time, effort and energy into investigating something that wasn't there."

This comes after John Quarrell and his trustee firm Quarters Trustees were struck off in following a ruling from The Pensions Regulator's determinations panel (PP Online, December 3).

The decision - made in August but only released on November 23 - said Quarrell and partner, Susan Beaumont were "not fit and proper persons" to be trustees.