Yorkshire pension scam victim 'will have to work for the rest of his life' after being conned out of £114,000

Stephen O'Reilly, 61, from Doncaster, fell victim to the scam in around 2013 - but those responsible have only recently been brought to justice.

Mr O'Reilly said the scam meant his dream of retiring to Spain and leaving money for his children has been left in tatters.

The father of four, who now lives on the Isle of Wight, says he now has to work in a bookamkers to support himself after transferring £114,000 to the scammers, who had told him he was getting a bad deal. He believed they were an independent Government pension advisor.

A man and a woman, both in their 60s, were jailed for their roles in the scam on April 22. Alan Barratt, 62, of Althorne, Essex, and Susan Dalton, 66, of Rochdale, Lancashire, were part of a £13.7m pension scam in which 245 victims were defrauded.

Mr O'Reilly said he had requested a review and was referred by the fake advisor to speak to Dalton on the phone, who persuaded him to hand over his savings.

It was not until he came to claim his pension that he found out it was a scam.

Mr O'Reilly was told he was due a lump sum and had ordered a car which he was left desperately trying to find the money for, having to borrow from his mother to pay for it.

He said: "If I could get my hands on them, you'd see. They've ruined my life. Now I'm just depressed all the time because I know I'm going to have to work the rest of my life because there's no money there.

"I was going to move to Spain but I can't now because I haven't got any money to move in the first place, and I would have to get a job and have enough money to fund myself while I'm finding a job. It's totally ruined my life."

Mr O'Reilly, who worked in the mines for 14 years, added: "I averaged probably 80 hours a week and I was putting a lot more money into my pension than anybody else that was there and now it's all gone."

The pair who helped con 245 victims out of a total of £13.7 million between 2012 and 2014, were sentenced to four years and eight months and five years and seven months respectively at Southwark Crown Court on April 22.

The scam's ‘mastermind’ David Austin killed himself in 2019 after being invited for a police interview under caution, the court was told.

Passing sentence, Judge Gregory Perrins said the duo caused ‘such misery to so many people’ with victims suffering mental health problems and some even attempting suicide.

The average amount each person lost was £55,000, but some lost many times more.

The court was told Dalton and Barratt, who were based in Spain, enticed savers with the promise of unrealistic returns, cash bonuses, and John Lewis vouchers before getting them to transfer their pensions from legitimate schemes to fraudulent ones.

The judge was told the cash bonuses, which victims were led to believe were part of a commission payment from the new schemes, were actually taken from their savings.