AFTER being ordered to pay back £14m to those who lost their retirement savings in the pension schemes Stuart Garner was the sole trustee of, the former Norton CEO’s property portfolio is being put up for sale.
The portfolio includes Donington Hall, the Priest House Hotel, Hastings House, the Landsdowne Buildings, and Kings Mill Caravan Park. The properties are all set in around 80 acres of land located just to the north of the Donington Park circuit.
The outstanding amount owed to the pension holders is £14m, with the portfolio thought to worth around £13m through, there may still be a shortfall of £1m should they all sell. In a statement regarding the ombudsman investigation into the Norton pension schemes, Garner also claims that the Administrators of the sale of Norton (BDO) are holding £16m from the sale of the beleaguered motorcycle maker.
The pensions side of the scandal may not be Garner’s only worry moving forwards, as the UK government may wish to investigate the reported £8m of funding and loans Norton received during his time at the helm of the firm. Garner’s links to the UK government were so strong in fact, the man behind the fall of Norton was even the poster boy for a government export campaign, supposedly championing companies that were the ‘best of British.’
The statement from the pension ombudsman stated that Garner had acted ‘dishonestly’ in his running of three Norton pension schemes. They also found he breached his duty of no conflict, his duty not to profit and also found that he ‘breached his statutory duty to have acquired knowledge and understanding of the law relating to pensions and trusts’.
