A pension fund administrator has left his workers facing redundancy – and the company he worked for on the verge of collapse – after stealing almost a quarter of a million pounds to pay off his debts.
David Parker, 37, secretly made 53 transactions under the noses of his colleagues at a Manchester-based firm of financial advisers, moving cash into accounts he controlled. Burdened with guilt after four years of fraudulent activity, he had at one point confessed his crimes to the police via a firm of solicitors
However, police reportedly “did nothing”. And it wasn’t until an independent financial adviser uncovered discrepancies in the company accounts that his cover-ups began to unravel and his crimes came to light.
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A court earlier this week heard that Parker had betrayed the trust placed in him by Multiplex Pension Trustees Ltd, where he earned a £37,000 salary working as a pension fund administrator. One of the funds he managed was for an Altrincham clothing company employing 50 people, Miss Mary of Sweden, prosecutor Juliet Berry told Manchester Crown Court.
When a decision was made to ‘wind up’ the relatively modest fund dating back to the 1990s, it was agreed that Parker would write to the members of the scheme. But unbeknown to his colleagues and members of the scheme, he had been stealing from the fund on a regular basis between 2016 and 2020.
In March 2020 Parker went on sick leave at a time when most of his colleagues at Multiplex were working from home due to the pandemic and he had “little interaction” with the other members of staff, the court heard. When restrictions eased, he came into the firm’s York Street offices in central Manchester “from time to time” but again went on sick leave in July and August of 2020, Ms Berry said.
Colleagues considered his continued absence “very much out of character”, the court heard. On August 5, 2020, he resigned via a text message.
His frauds were discovered when an independent financial adviser acting for one of the members of the Miss Mary of Sweden fund — which has now been wound up — contacted Multiplex about their pension benefits, having spotted discrepancies in the accounts. An internal investigation established that Parker had been behind 53 transactions that stashed cash into three accounts he controlled — one of them his own, another in the name of his partner, and a third in the name of his step-daughter. The amount transferred came to a total of £238,128.55.
In a victim’s personal statement read out in court, Joanne Hever, of Multiplex, said the notion that fraud was a victimless crime was “far from the truth”. The amount of money Parker had taken was quantifiable, she said, but the impact of his crime had “cost the business in other ways’.
Ms Hever said “many hours have been taken up unravelling the fraud” as “David went to considerable lengths to destroy records”. She added his actions had been a “significant drain” on the business, which she said has an annual turnover of £700,000.
Parker had been employed in a position of trust at the family-owned business and his crimes had left colleagues in “shock, disbelief and anger”, Ms Hever said.
The firm’s small team of seven had been “devastated” at the discovery and the firm’s future was “very much uncertain”, she added. It was likely that some members of staff would have to be made redundant.
Ms Hever said she personally felt a “huge sense of shock and upset” and also “feelings of guilt and self-blame”, adding that she had since suffered anxiety attacks and depression.
She said she now questioned her judgment of character and “ability to do my job”, saying she constantly checked and double-checked her work.
When Parker was arrested and interviewed on December 31, 2021, he admitted he had stolen money from his employers. Richard Simons, defending, referred the judge to a letter the defendant had written to him and also a number of character testimonials, although these were not read out in court.
The references spoke of his client’s “many positive attributes” but also expressed “shock” that he could commit such crimes, said Mr Simons, who urged the judge to suspend any prison sentence.
Parker, he said, had at first made “modest withdrawals” and had “fully intended” to pay back the money, but then made further withdrawals when he realised they had gone undetected.
Mr Simons said the money had not gone to “fund an extravagant lifestyle or purchase luxury items” but had been used to pay back a series of pay-day loans. He added that Parker had felt such shame as his personal life “deteriorated” that he went to a firm of solicitors and instructed them to tell police he had been “helping himself” to pension fund money.
Asked what police did when offered this information by the solicitors, Mr Simons said “nothing” and added police officers suggested that the matter should be taken up by the pension fund administrator.
Judge Timothy Smith noted how the references he had read described a “devoted father and loving family man and somebody who was honest and could be trusted”.
But the judge added: “You have, by the offending to which you have pleaded guilty, held your hands up and showed yourself to be somebody not to be trusted, who was in fact dishonest and who was dishonest for a significant period of time.”
Judge Smith said the defendant had “pilfered” money for a number of years and had then attempted to cover his tracks, although he accepted that Parker had stolen the money to pay off debts rather than fund a lavish lifestyle.
The judge said he was prepared to give the defendant a discount on his sentence because of his prompt admissions, even though he had not pleaded guilty at his first court appearance. He added it was “regrettable” that the police had taken no action when Parker’s solicitors had informed them about his crimes.
Parker, of Firbank Road in Newall Green, Wythenshawe, Manchester, appeared shocked when the judge jailed him for two years and four months. He had admitted one charge of fraud and another of acquiring criminal property between August 2016 and July 2020.
Members of his family, in the public gallery, waved at Parker and wept as he was taken down to begin his sentence, the Manchester Evening News reported.
