{"id":193523,"date":"2025-06-18T04:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T04:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193523\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T04:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T04:55:11","slug":"retired-brit-now-working-as-a-cleaner-after-heartbreaking-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/193523\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Brit now working as a cleaner after heartbreaking mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Brozel from Barnet took early retirement at 50 so he could enjoy a new life in Spain with his wife but is now having to supplement a \u00a3600 state pension with work<\/p>\n

16:58, 17 Jun 2025Updated 17:02, 17 Jun 2025<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan Brozel was devastated after losing his money <\/p>\n

A British expat living out his days in Spain<\/a> has been forced back into work as a cleaner and driver after he lost all his hard-earned pension<\/a>. Alan Brozel, moved to Gata de Gorgos on the Costa Blanca with his wife Paulene after taking early retirement<\/a> at 50. The former Barnet resident’s dreams turned into a nightmare, however, when Alan lost his pension pot to Continental Wealth Management (CWM).<\/p>\n

The company that collapsed after allegedly taking more than \u00a3150,000 from him. Speaking about his ordeal, he said: “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.” He had instructed CWM to invest his money in low-risk opportunities, but claims that “they forged our signatures to invest in high risk,” reports Manchester Evening News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"JodyJody Smart was the only Continental Wealth Management company director prosecuted following Mr Brozel’s loss<\/p>\n

Initially, CWM seemed to deliver, providing dividends as expected, but over time, the payments dwindled and became erratic.<\/p>\n

Alan explained his previous expectations: “The idea was we would all give up work and have numerous holidays around the world<\/a> and the investment money would help cover that.”<\/p>\n

Now 74, Alan is surviving on a \u00a3600 state pension, supplemented by odd jobs. He shared his current situation with the MailOnline: “Now I’m 74, and I’m still working cleaning villas and looking after dogs<\/a> in our house,” adding, “here is no sign of me stopping. Paulene is still working too.”<\/p>\n

Alan and Paulene face little chance of recouping their investment after one of CWM’s former directors, ex-model Jody Smart, was convicted of fraud last month.<\/p>\n

Before the trial could start, Company Secretary Alan Gorringe passed away and the location of another director, Darren Kirby, remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

An unnamed source told expat newspaper Olive Press that Kirby might have made his way back to Britain, noting: “A judge is dealing with this and it’s under legal review. We understand he is currently in England.”<\/p>\n

Alan furiously branded Smart “an absolute con artist,” lamenting the loss of his life savings to CWM, a plight made worse by the fact that he had confidently recommended the firm to several friends.<\/p>\n

Scores of individuals, predominantly British expats, put their money into CWM.<\/p>\n

One distressed pensioner confided to the Olive Press about losing \u20ac210,000 out of an investment of \u20ac470,000 in what were promised as “low to medium risk” ventures.<\/p>\n

He revealed: “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.”<\/p>\n

He added: “They should have been looking out for me and they were just feathering their own nests. To me they knew what they were doing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alan Brozel from Barnet took early retirement at 50 so he could enjoy a new life in Spain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,617,2499,17392,1786,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-193523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-pensions","11":"tag-personal-finance","12":"tag-retirement-age","13":"tag-state-pension","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114702590884206354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}