A British expat who thought his £150,000 pension pot would ensure a comfortable retirement on the Costa Blanca has been forced to work odd jobs at 74 just to mak eends meetAlan Brozel was one of hundreds, if not thousands, of expats caught up in a pensions scam(Image: FACEBOOK)

A British man who emigrated to Spain hoping for a comfortable retirement in the sun, has found himself working as a driver and holiday villa cleaner to make ends meet. Alan Brozel took early retirement at 50, and moved with his wife Paulene from Barnet in north London to Gata de Gorgos on the Costa Blanca.

But Alan lost his pension pot after handing it over to a company called Continental Wealth Management (CWM). He says the company took over £150,000 from him but then went bust.

He told the Daily Mail: “This was my whole pension, the whole lot, I’d only worked for a couple of companies, and they had invested wisely so the pot was substantial.” Alan had asked CWM to place his money in low-risk investments but, he claims, “they forged our signatures to invest in high risk”.

At first, he says, CWM were paying him dividends as expected but after the first few years his payments became lower, and less regular than expected. He continued: “The idea was we would all give up work and have numerous holidays around the world and the investment money would help cover that.”

Now, Alan is scraping by on his £600 state pension and topping it up with off jobs. “Now I’m 74, and I’m still working cleaning villas and looking after dogs in our house,” he said. “There is no sign of me stopping. Paulene is still working too.”

There’s little prospect of Alan and Paulene recovering their investment. One of CWM’s former directors, former model Jody Smart, was convicted of fraud last month. Of the company’s other executives, Company secretary Alan Gorringe died before the trial began and the whereabouts of another director, Darren Kirby, are currently unknown.

Alan now lives in a modest two-bed home in Gata de Gorgos [stock image](Image: Getty Images)

A source told expat newspaper Olive Press that Kirby may have returned to the UK, saying: “A judge is dealing with this and it’s under legal review. We understand he is currently in England.”

Alan furiously described Smart as “an absolute con artist,” and says that not only did he lose his life savings with CWM, he had been so taken in by their sales pitch that he’d recommended the company to a number of his friends.

Dozens of people, most of them British expats, had invested with CWM. One pensioner, who asked not to be named, told the Olive Press he lost €210,000 after transferring €470,000 despite opting for “low to medium risk” investments.

“I was asked, ‘Can you sign this blank form. We will fill in the details.’ I did that trusting they would act in my best interests,” he said. “They should have been looking out for me and they were just feathering their own nests. To me they knew what they were doing.”