
Court delays Pensions Board case for scheme payback

IRELAND - A prosecution brought by the Pensions Board against a company director has been adjourned to give him time to pay back funds he took from the firm's pension scheme.
The case against Louis Tighe, director of H.T.E Limited, which is currently in liquidation, was adjourned until 9 May 2011 to allow him to come up with the money for the Construction Workers Pension Scheme (CWPS).
H.T.E deducted pension contributions from the wages and salaries of its employees between March 2007 and July 2009 but failed to remit them to the pension scheme within the statutory timeframe, the Pensions Board said.
Board staff carried out a search of the company's premises on 2 October 2009 to investigate this matter. The Pensions Board said it was estimated that the employees' pension contributions which were deducted from employees' wages and salaries but not remitted to the scheme came to €211,611 ($293,000).
This meant employees working for that company were not covered for pension benefits, sick-pay benefits or death benefits between March 2007 and July 2009, it added.
Pensions Board chief executive Brendan Kennedy, said: "This case is a warning to all employers and directors that the Pensions Board treats the failure of the employer to pass on pension contributions to the trustees of the pension scheme as a very serious offence.
"We advise any employer with outstanding pension contributions to contact the pension scheme to regularise their position."
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