Former Westminster council employee guilty of stealing nearly £1m from pension fund
A former Westminster city council employee has been found guilty of stealing nearly £1m from its pension fund.
Ian Woodall, the former interim head of pensions and investments at the wealthy council for nearly three years, was convicted of one charge of fraud by abuse of position and a second charge of concealing criminal property at Southwark Crown Court today.
Woodall was a contractor and "trusted member" of the council responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the pension fund, used to pay council workers. His duties involved communicating with bankers regarding payments that were made and received by the council.
In 2013 the council's internal auditors noticed a "discrepancy" in its pension fund for the years covering 2010 to 2012 regarding four payments worth more than £900,000. After suspecting that the payments were not legitimate, it referred the matter to the police who launched a full investigation the same year.
A Westminster city council spokesperson said: “This was a serious breach of the council’s trust from a senior employee, resulting in a detailed police investigation.
“This was a significant time ago. Since then we have changed our processes to make them even more robust and kept these under review. The fact we were able to pick this up and successfully prosecute is positive and we will now do all that we can to recoup this money through the courts.”
Woodhall is due to be sentenced on 16 November.