A CHARITY boss has been stripped of his MBE after swindling its pension scheme out of nearly £300,000.
Patrick McLarry, 72, had his honour, awarded in 1998, withdrawn on the orders of the Queen after he was jailed for fraud.
It completed a spectacular fall from grace for the former CEO and chairman of Yateley Industries for the Disabled in Hampshire.
He was caught siphoning pensioners’ cash to buy property in France, to repay a pub lease debt and to prop up his wife’s antiques business.
McLarry, of Bere Alston, Devon, was jailed for five years in February last year and told to pay back the £286,852 he owes.
He lost his MBE after The Pension Regulator alerted honours officials.
Nicola Parish, TPR’s executive director of Frontline Regulation, said: “It is a lesson to all would-be pension fraudsters.
“TPR, working with colleagues from other regulators and law enforcement agencies, will pursue criminals who exploit others’ hard-earned savings for their personal gain.
“Whistleblowers were pivotal to the success of this case.
“We remind trustees, advisers and scheme members who have suspicions or concerns about the way their workplace pension is being run that they can contact us via the whistleblowing form on our website.”
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