UT (Tax & Chancery) UT/2023/000103 - [2025] UKUT 00102 (TCC)

Clifton contacted businesses which had a critical need for finance because most traditional financing sources had already been exhausted. Some business owners had already mortgaged their own homes in order to provide finance, and were desperate for other forms of fund raising [36].

Clifton held an initial conversation with the employer about funding needs [155] and suggested that the company’s pension funds could be used to raise finance [36]. Some of the employers already had a SSAS with MLT, others were advised to set one up. The trustees of each SSAS were MLT together with one or more of the directors of the employer company.

The Employers were more interested in how much financing could be raised than in the definitions of the IP which was to be used to raise the finance, or the details of how the Pension Funding Deal worked or the details of the documentation [37]. In some cases, the business would have gone under had it not obtained this finance [36]. The Pension Funding Deals generated fees for MLT and other members of the group, including Clifton [224]. Some employers who entered into Pension Funding Deals subsequently became insolvent and some SSASs wrote off amounts due to them from the related employer.