Former Westminster council boss stole almost £1million from staff pension fund to buy a house and cars

A former Westminster City Council manager has been convicted of creaming off nearly £1 million from workers' pension pots to buy himself a house and cars.

A Scotland Yard investigation discovered that Ian Robert Woodall had diverted the funds through Swiss bank accounts and then back into the UK to pay into his personal and company bank accounts while he was working for the London council.

He then used the stolen money to buy his house, cars and to support his lifestyle, the Metropolitan Police fraud squad said.

Woodall, 47, of Dell Close, Mickleham, Dorset, was convicted for the frauds at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, October 15, at the end of a ten-day trial.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Bailey of the Met’s Fraud Squad said Woodall was meant to be looking after the pensions of "hard-working council staff, money people were counting on to support them in retirement."

"However, Woodall betrayed his colleagues and his employers, using other people’s savings to fund his lifestyle.

"Thankfully his criminality was uncovered by auditors and the resulting police investigation has brought him to justice."

He had been working as the interim head of the council's pensions and investments team for about three years as a contractor.

His job had been to liaise with the council’s bankers on outgoing payments and investments received.

He left the position in 2010 when the council decided to employ a permanent pension fund manager, police said.

The council said Woodall's crimes were uncovered after discrepancies were noticed in the fund's 2010/11 and 2011/12 accounts.

That sparked an internal audit which raised suspicions about the legitimacy of four payments totalling £900k, including an April 2010 transfer of about CHf.60,000 Swiss Francs (£37,000), according to police.

The council referred their suspicions to the police, who launched an investigation in 2013.

A Westminster City Council spokesman said Woodall had been a trusted employee, and that the pension fund's accounting and audit systems had been strengthened in the wake of the case.

The council says it hopes the police will be able to claw back the money Woodall took from the pension fund for its workers.

“This was a serious breach of the council’s trust from a senior employee, resulting in a detailed police investigation," the council's spokesman said.

“This was a significant time ago. Since then we have changed our processes to make them even more robust and kept these under review."

Woodall was convicted of a charge of fraud by abuse of position and a second charge of concealing criminal property. He had denied both charges.

Sentencing is due to take place in November.