Widow of man conned out of pension savings to lose half the compensation to tax

Last year, the Fraud Compensation Fund paid £9.4m to the collapsed Norton retirement schemes more than a decade after the scam took place. Photograph: Lordprice Collection/Alamy

The family of a deceased man, who was conned out of his retirement savings after investing in the Norton Motorcycles pension scam, is to lose almost half the subsequent compensation award because of a little-known tax rule.

A long-running battle to win an award from the Fraud Compensation Fund (FCF) meant that Robert Dewar’s pension was not reimbursed until 2024, five years after his death at the age of 64.