Seven former Premier League players have hired a Liverpool law firm in a High Court action over alleged mis-selling of pensions and investments. Tony McDonough reports

A Liverpool law firm is representing seven former Premier League footballers in a cased involving alleged mis-selling of pensions and investments.

Former Newcastle United players Robert Lee, Warren Barton and John Beresford, plus four unnamed team-mates, are have hired High Street Solicitors in Liverpool city centre to take their case to the High Court.

They are suing a financial advisor called Kevin Neal, who was a director of several financial advisory firms. Another former Newcastle player, Alan Shearer, secured a settlement with Mr Neal in 2019 over investments gone sour.

The retired footballers are suing Mr Neal along with 13 other companies; James Hay Administration Company Limited, James Hay Pension Trustees Limited, AJ Bell Management Limited, AJ Bell (PP) Trustees Limited, Westerby Trustees Services Limited, Standard Life Assurance Limited, Standard Life Trustee Company Limited, Curtis Banks Limited, Colston Trustees Limited, Rowanmoor Executive Pensions Limited, Rowanmoor Trustees Limited, Suffolk Life Pensions Limited and Suffolk Life Trustees Limited.

All seven ex-players claim they were give poor advice on pension investments that amount to almost £3m. Some individuals claims they lost up to £850,000 and were forced to sell their family homes.

Mandy Howarth, a solicitor at High Street Solicitors, said: “The pension losses suffered by Rob and the others in this case were, in my opinion, preventable. The FCA has regulations and guidance in place as a means of ensuring firms authorised by them meet industry standards.

“The losses our clients have suffered are far too commonplace. High Street Solicitors is currently acting on behalf of a large number of clients  who have been similarly advised and lost their entire pensions.

“The reality is, there are  many other people out there, to whom this has happened, that are still not aware of the loss or significant risk of loss to their pensions and we hope this article will go some way towards raising awareness of this, as there are strict time limits that apply to this type of claim which many will be unaware of.”