He was then advised to transfer his pension to a private one with the promise of much better returns.

Kevin said: "He did say, 'If you transfer it over, all we charge is a five percent transfer fee'. At that time I didn't know how much the pension was worth - it was actually worth £242,000 'cause it's a final salary pension.

"The fee for the transfer was £12,000 which they initially took. Then each year they would take £1,500 from the pension for looking after it. When I got the letter from the new pension it had gone into, at first I was angry. I thought I'd been ripped off basically.

"I was on the phone to him, 'You've took £12,000 for referring it'. I said 'that's a lot of money just for some keying about on a keyboard."

Read More