The wife of a crooked pensions 'adviser' has been cleared of helping him launder the part of the proceeds of a £20mn pension scam, Southwark Crown Court has declared.
Rikki Nicholls, 57, along with Mark Kelly, 52, persuaded 285 victims to move their plans to their company PCD Wealth and Pensions between September 2006 and April 2013.
The money was funnelled into risky investments without the consent of the pension holders who were charged hidden fees while the fraudsters paid themselves large bonuses.
Nicholls and Kelly denied but were convicted of conspiracy to defraud and transferring criminal property after a trial lasting more than five months.
The pair were jailed for six years at Southwark Crown Court in July 2022 after standing trial with their wives, Angela Kelly, 55, and 59-year-old Sharon Nicholls.
Mrs Kelly was convicted of transferring criminal property, between October 2008 and March 2015 and she was later handed an 18-month suspended sentence.
It can now be revealed the jury failed to reach verdicts against Mrs Nicholls at the end of that trial. As a result, she has now been cleared of transferring criminal property, namely commission payments from pension holders, following a retrial.
'That's the kind of person he was'
Mr and Mrs Nicholls had started looking at apartments in Cheshire in the run up to Christmas 2009, the court heard.
During the trial, Mark Fenhalls, prosecuting, said to Mrs Nicholls: "At no stage did you turn to your husband and say 'what is our budget?'
"It is ludicrous. Of course you would have had that conversation."
Mrs Nicholls replied: "I can't remember a conversation where he said, 'this is the budget'. It was a very long time ago.
"I asked 'can we afford it.' He said, 'Yeah we can afford it'.
"That's the kind of person he was - he would do these kind of things. I knew at the time that Rikki would never put us at risk financially.
"I knew the money came from earnings. He and Mark were doing really well. They were so excited all the time."
Nicholls told the court that she would sign what her husband asked her to sign because she trusted him.
"I used to joke with him and say 'I hope I'm not signing my life away'. Do you think I don't wish I had checked every single thing he signed? That's how much I trusted him."
PCD Wealth and Pensions
Earlier Mr Fenhall said: "Mark Kelly and Rikki Nicholls went into business together under the guise of a trading entity called PCD Wealth and Pensions.
"What they did [was get] other people, known as introducers, to persuade pension holders to transfer their pensions from an underperforming scheme into something called a self-invested personal pension scheme, or a Sipp.
"In getting these pension holders to move their pension plans, various deceptions were made.
