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Piers Feltham secures victory in pension appeal

Piers Feltham secured a remarkable victory for his client Mr Jossa before the Pensions Ombudsman and then on appeal in the High Court.

Mr Jossa had defrauded the London Borough of Enfield of £0.5m before he was made redundant. After his fraud was discovered Enfield sought to set off his unrecovered debt to it for the fraud against his pension under r.74 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Administration Regulations 2008, although this provides for set off where an employee has left employment in consequence of negligence, fraud or crime, on the basis that an employee can be no better off for having successfully concealed his fraud.

Mr Feltham persuaded the court that notwithstanding the unattractiveness of the result, there was no option but to find that set-off was not available and the Council must pay the pension. The decision is of importance in identifying the limits of purposive statutory construction.

To see the final judgment of London Borough of Enfield v Jossa [2017] EWHC 2749 (Ch) click here.