ICS seeks more than 300 who bought Pall Mall pensions

Hundreds of people who were mis-sold personal pensions by a London firm of financial advisers that has now gone bust will be the first to get redress from the Investors Compensation Scheme.

However, the ICS says it is still trying to trace about 6,000 clients of the firm, Pall Mall Asset Management, which went into liquidation in 1991.

The ICS believes that at least 300 of these clients were either advised to transfer their pension from a former employer's fund or opted out of their existing company scheme and shifted all their money into a private fund.

But it has so far been unable to obtain the client list from Pall Mall's former directors because it has been sold on. A spokesman for the ICS said: 'We have been in contact with directors and we are prepared to review and compensate all those who may have been wrongly advised to transfer or opt out of company schemes.

'The problem is that without knowing just who those clients are we are unable to help them.' The spokesman appealed for individual clients of Pall Mall who believe they may be affected to contact the ICS directly.

The ICS, set up in 1988, is funded by the insurance industry and has paid out almost pounds 70m to about 7,000 clients of firms that have gone into default.

Pall Mall Asset Management was one of a number of financial companies all operating from the same address, at 125 Pall Mall, London.

The company went into liquidation in 1991, selling its client list to a similarly named firm, Pall Mall Money Management, whose directors are named as Paul Marks and Simon Tyler.

In turn, the list was sold on to Alpha Gold Financial Services, a subsidiary of Tribune Independent Financial Management, a London-based company whose sales director is Gary Deaves.

Mr Deaves said: 'There is a list, which came when a number of Pall Mall consultants joined Alpha Gold. In turn, this company was taken over by Tribune. If the ICS gets in touch with us I am sure that we would be more than willing to identify any former Pall Mall clients so they can obtain compensation, although we would reject any financial liability for business not conducted in our name.'

The ICS spokesman said: 'Our first priority is to compensate those who may have been affected by any misselling of personal pensions.

'But we also have an obligation under our rules to try to recover any money we pay out from other sources we believe may be legally liable.'

Investors Compensation Scheme 071-628 8820.