A recruitment agency and its managing director have been ordered to pay £10,890 for avoiding their automatic enrolment obligations and misleading The Pensions Regulator (TPR).

The Hertfordshire based firm, SKL Professional Recruitment Agency Ltd, and managing director Linus Kadzere, were both sentenced yesterday (17 December) at Brighton Magistrates’ Court,

Both the agency and managing director admitted to lying about TPR by falsely claiming staff had been auto-enrolled into workplace pension schemes in November.

SKL and Kadzere pleaded guilty to three charges of wilfully failing to comply with their automatic enrolment duties under section 45 and 46 of the Pensions Act 2008 and one charge each of knowingly or recklessly providing false information to TPR under section 80 of the Pensions Act 2004.

After a false declaration of compliance by Mr Kadzere, in which he told TPR his company had enrolled 22 staff, SKL Recruitment’s situation was brought to TPR’s attention by whistleblowing reports from staff.

A subsequent investigation found that although a pension scheme had been set up, staff had not been enrolled and pension contributions deducted from pay had not been paid into the scheme.

This follows a similar case at Brighton Magistrates’ Court involving a children’s nursery, in which the company and director were ordered to pay £8,200 in late November.

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