Samuel Smith Brewery faces legal action over pensions information
Brewer and pub operator Samuel Smith Old Brewery is facing legal action after it failed to hand over pensions information.
The Pensions Regulator announced today that it will prosecute the Tadcaster-based company and its chairman for failing to provide information in an ongoing investigation.
Several of Samuel Smith's 200 pubs are in London, including Holborn's Princess Louise, Fleet Street's Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and the City's George and Vulture.
TPR said it had sought details of the company's finances in order to understand the funding position of some of the brewery's pension schemes.
After the brewery failed to comply, chairman Humphrey Smith and the company have both been ordered to appear at a Magistrates' court charged with neglecting or refusing to provide information without a reasonable excuse.
Smith is charged on the basis that the offence by the company was committed with his “consent or connivance or by his neglect”.
In previous cases of this nature, defendants found guilty are often ordered to pay a fine.
Failure to provide information without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence for which the fine is unlimited.
In previous cases of this nature, defendants found guilty are often ordered to pay a fine.
One notable case is former BHS owner Dominic Chappell, who was ordered to pay £87,000 for failing to co-operate with the watchdog.
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