Help – it took 15 months for my ex-employer from the high-tech company to transfer my pension! TONY HETHERINGTON replies

Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s top researcher, taking on readers’ corners, uncovering the truth that lies behind closed doors and delivering victories for those left out of pocket. Below you can read how you can contact him.

TW writes: I’m asking for your help to investigate a company called Pupil. After leaving the company in 2023, I wanted to transfer my retirement savings to my new employer’s scheme. However, People’s Partnership – Pupil’s pension scheme – informed me that the contributions deducted from my wages had not been passed on by Pupil. I have since discovered that other employees and former employees are in the same boat.

Tony Heatherington replies: Pupil is not a ‘hole-in-the-corner’ company. It is an international high-tech company, formally registered as Digital Reality Corp Limited, that offers highly detailed computer images of buildings. The backers include the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estates, whose officials confirmed this but added that ‘we are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.’

What went so wrong that you were able to give me a stream of pay slips showing monthly pension contributions of hundreds of pounds, while the pension company received nothing?

People’s Partnership told you: ‘If employers deduct pension contributions from your wages, by law your employer must pay these to your pension provider by the 22nd of the following month.’ But this didn’t happen. And an employee of Pupil’s HR department told you last September: ‘I understand that the pension contributions will be settled this month.’

But this didn’t happen either. By the time you contacted me, things had escalated. The pension company told me that they had registered Pupil with the watchdog Pension Supervisor. It added: ‘We have also been in direct contact with the employer in question to take the appropriate steps to ensure their obligations are met.’

It took a while for Student to respond. Finally, it told me, “We are pleased to report that we secured new funding last week; therefore, the company will be able to keep its financial obligations current.”

The only conclusion I could draw was that Pupil had so little money that it was living at least partially off the pension contributions of its own employees. Money that was not the student’s to spend. There was also the matter of the commission payments you had expected to receive after winning business for Pupil.

I pressed Pupil and it was explained that when an employee leaves the company, any outstanding commission payments will be made ‘one month after the month of departure’. It added: ‘The customer’s payment arrived after the one month period.’

In fact, employees can win business for Pupil, but there is no guarantee that their commission will be paid. This is in the hands of Pupil’s new customer. If the employee does not pay Pupil on time, the employee may lose any commission, which means Pupil keeps the extra money. This is so unfair. Was it really true? Yes, said student, that is our policy.

As for pension contributions, Pupil has made a deposit to the People’s Partnership. I was asked for time to pay the full amount before The Mail on Sunday published it, and a week ago the pension firm told me: ‘We have been working very closely with the company in question to resolve the issue.’

But some of your missing contributions date back to January last year, so it took about 15 months for that money to be delivered.

That it has to go to its lenders to find the money it has ‘borrowed’ from its own employees without their knowledge speaks volumes about Pupil’s own image. It’s not a pretty sight.

We’re watching you

Newspaper watchdog the Independent Press Standards Organization has dismissed a complaint filed against The Mail on Sunday by Ben Revell, the boss of a series of failed wine trading companies, all operating under the name Winebuyers.

Last September I reported that Winebuyers, after two collapses, “like the third installment in a subpar zombie franchise, is back from the dead.” Revell’s first company was Winebuyers Limited, which collapsed in 2021 with debts estimated by the liquidator to be in excess of £1.5 million. The website winebuyers.com was acquired by Revell’s next company, Winebuyers Group Limited, which went bankrupt in July last year.

Revell, 35, from Harlow, Essex, then bought the website name from the wreckage of his second company, using a new company registered in the Seychelles. The offshore company is said to be owned by British company Elysian Ventures, but Companies House records showed both were controlled by Revell.

To outsiders, winebuyers.com continued to market wines as if nothing had happened, taking orders from the public and passing them on to wine merchants whose products were promoted on the website. The traders were big losers when the companies went bankrupt, but regular customers also reported having to pay in advance for wines that never arrived.

If you believe you have been a victim of financial misconduct, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, personal answers cannot be given. Only send copies of original documents. Unfortunately, these cannot be returned.