A Sussex businessman has been fined £15,000 for withholding information legally required in an investigation by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). The TPR had requested information from Lee Bartholomew, former company director of 1066 Target Sports Ltd in St Leonards, on June 10, 2020, as part of an investigation into allegations of fraudulent evasion relating to employee pension contributions. Lewes Crown Court heard that Bartholomew intentionally failed to provide the information required by TPR by the deadline of July 8, 2020, suppressing the material sought without reasonable excuse.
Bartholomew, of Lockside, Tonbridge, Kent, was fined £7,500 and ordered to pay costs of £7,500. At a previous hearing on April 26, the 45-year-old pleaded guilty to intentionally and without reasonable excuse suppressing documents he was required to produce. Following his guilty plea to the charge, TPR is no longer prosecuting Mr Bartholomew for fraudulent evasion of his duty to pay money deducted from the salaries of his employees as pension contributions into a workplace pension scheme within a prescribed period.
Read more: Dog walker who repeatedly smashed dog's head against a wall spared jail In his ruling, Judge Stephen Mooney told the defendant: “You took the decision to suppress, i.e. deliberately not provide, documentation you should have done because you knew to do so would alert the regulator that you weren’t paying money where you should have done.
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