We fought for our country but now we have been robbed, says veteran

AN IRAQ veteran who lost his entire £48,000 pension pot says he feels ‘betrayed and abandoned’ by the Government.

Paul Watson, who joined the Lancers – an Army cavalry regiment – as a teenager and served tours of Iraq in 2003 and 2005, said: ‘It’s a massive scandal. Hundreds of veterans are being done over. It is absolutely atrocious, we have fought for our country but have been robbed.’

The 36-year-old father of two, from Ibstock in Leicestershire, was cold-called by a scam scheme a few months after leaving the Army in December 2013.

He was sent the Pinnacle brochure, which stressed its HMRC and Pensions Regulator registration numbers. When he applied to move his Army pension to Pinnacle, the MoD approved it ‘no questions asked’. His savings soon vanished.

‘I spent the last 12 years fighting for Queen and country and I’m getting nothing for it,’ he said.

‘The impact this has had on my and my family’s life has been devastating with major long-term implications for us all.

‘Since I’ve left, I’ve not put anything into a pension pot because I thought I had a big pension. Now I discover it’s been snatched away. How is this allowed to happen when this was registered with Government departments?’

Mr Watson was frustrated to discover the Ministry of Defence, like all occupational scheme trustees, had been warned by the Pensions Regulator about scam schemes and the importance of due diligence before making transfers into them.

He added: ‘They expect us to put our lives on the line for them. Surely they owe us some duty of care? We are soldiers, not pensions experts. We served loyally but if feels like we’ve been betrayed and abandoned.’