Gambian ambassador Vincent Bootes has been ordered to pay more than £80,000 after being found guilty of withholding information from The Pensions Regulator (TPR).
On Friday (26 November), Bootes was tried in his absence at Brighton Magistrates’ Court in a prosecution brought by TPR over allegations he failed to comply with two notices issued under section 72 of the Pensions Act 2004.
The 58-year-old, who had previously entered a not guilty plea, claimed he was unable to attend court because he was considered persona non grata in the United Kingdom. Bootes had also given up his British citizenship in order to serve as an ambassador for The Republic of Gambia in West Africa.
The two notices were issued as part of a TPR investigation into whistleblower allegations that staff working for him at PGT Ceewrite Engineering were not paid automatic enrolment workplace pension contributions by his companies, despite the money being deducted from their pay-packets.
The companies were registered at either Station Road, Liphook, Hampshire, or Anyards Road, Cobham, Surrey. On 1 June 2018 and 12 September 2018, Bootes received notices requiring him to provide TPR with information about his companies at his Hampshire address. Although Mr Bootes claimed to have provided the information, TPR never received it and, in any case, it was only sent a year after it was due.
In a one-day trial, Judge Szagun found Mr Bootes guilty of both offences, saying, “In terms of culpability, I find given the continuing history of lack of compliance, it’s clear to me his intention is at the highest level of avoidance and manipulation, and this places his culpability in the highest category of intent.”
Bootes was fined more than £82,970, which included £30,000 in fines for each of the two offences, £22,800 in costs, and a £170 surcharge.
