SIPP introducers to pay over £10.7m compensation

The High Court has ordered illegal pension introducers Avacade, Alexandra Associates and their directors to pay compensation to consumers. The restitution must be paid by the two companies and three individual directors to customers that were induced to transfer their pensions into SIPPs. The order was made against Avacade which is in liquidation, Alexandra Associates which is trading as Avacade Future Solutions (AA), Craig Lummis, Lee Lummis and Raymond Fox. Avacade must pay £10m in compensation, AA £715,000, Craig Lummis £2.5m, Lee Lummis £.25m and Raymond Fox £1.7m. Mr Lummis, Mr Lummis and Mr Fox have also been banned from engaging in regulated activities in the UK without authorisation, making financial promotions and making false or misleading statements about regulated investments. In June the court found that Avacade and AA acted unlawfully as they had engaged in the regulated activities of arranging and advising on investments, made unapproved financial promotions through their websites, promotional material and in telephone calls to consumers and made false or misleading statements. The Court also found that Mr Lummis, Mr Lummis and Mr Fox were knowingly taking part in in Avacade’s and AA’s breaches. Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: "The FCA will make wrongdoers financially accountable to consumers whom, as the Court recognises in this decision, include elderly and vulnerable citizens who have paid their due share of income tax, made sacrifices, and taken prudential decisions for their future retirement over the course of an honest working life."

SIPP introducers to pay over £10.7m compensation

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