NAEH Ltd, Wise Auto Enrolment Ltd (Wise) and National Auto Enrolment Helpline Ltd were all wound up by the High Court in Manchester on 17 September 2018.

NAEH Ltd and Wise acted as introducers where they referred employers to a pension administrator in order to set up new schemes.

However, the Insolvency Service received complaints about the two companies and with assistance from The Pensions Regulator (TPR), investigators found that NAEH and Wise traded with a lack of commercial probity.

The two pension enrolment companies would make misleading and unfounded statements on their websites and to employers, as well as charging advance fees for services which they then completely failed to provide.

Investigators also found that the two companies operated with a lack of transparency. They would use incorrect company names on invoices and it was unclear who was in control of NAEH and Wise.

The third company that was wound up, National Auto Enrolment Helpline, had not conducted any activities but investigators demonstrated to the court there were strong grounds to believe that the company would have been used to continue the activities carried out by NAEH and Wise.

Scott Crighton, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘The Insolvency Service will investigate and bring to a halt the activities of companies that fail to meet the required standards of commercial probity and transparency and that are found to be operating against the public interest.’

Report by Pat Sweet