The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is prosecuting a former head of a charity for the disabled on suspicion of having defrauded the charity’s pension scheme.

Patrick McLarry is accused of transferring more than £250,000 from the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled. The charity, Yateley Industries, provides skilled training, employment and accommodation for people with disabilities.

He is accused of fraud by abuse of position, an offence under section 1(2)(c) of the Fraud Act 2006, and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

His wife, Sandra McLarry, faces four charges of money laundering – the first time that TPR has brought a prosecution for this offence. Money laundering is an offence under section 327 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment.

The offences are said to have taken place between April 2011 and September 2013 when Mr McLarry was both the chief executive and chairman of the charity and a director of the corporate trustee of the charity’s pension scheme. Mrs McLarry was the secretary of the Hampshire-based charity’s board.

Mr McLarry, 70, and Mrs McLarry, 59, of Bere Alston, Devon, have been summonsed by Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court to appear at the court on 19 March.

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