A BUS company boss has become the first person in Britain to be fined for deliberately trying to avoid paying staff pensions.

Alan Stott, 69, and his company Stotts Tours (Oldham) were ordered to pay more than £60,000 after he and his company admitted eight charges of wilfully failing to comply with the law on workplace pensions.

All British employers are legally required to put eligible staff into a pension scheme and pay minimum contributions under the automatic enrolment scheme.

Stotts Tours (Oldham) should have put 36 staff into the scheme and started paying contributions from June 2015, a spokesperson for the Pensions Regulator said.

The regulator’s director of automatic enrolment Darren Ryder said: “This case shows the cost to employers that failing to comply with automatic enrolment can bring — a bill of tens of thousands of pounds, a criminal conviction and a damaged reputation.”