The Henderson case is the first employer to have been charged and, after one and half years in court, appears to finally be winding down to a conclusion. What is not known is what fines and penalties may be assessed, which could be $5,000 per conviction and $500 per day in penalties, according to the Superintendent of the Pensions Office, Cyril Theriault. Penalties and fines could add up to tens of thousand dollars since December 2004 when the National Pensions Office ordered Mr Henderson to get the pension payments caught up.

“We want the fine to stand out as a deterrent to other employers to come in compliance with the Pensions law, but we don’t know yet what the fine will be,” said Mr Theriault. “In some cases, pensions were deducted from salaries, but there was no corresponding contribution to the fund administrator.

“We are hoping the judge will insist on a full remedy and the employee pensions funds must be made whole.”

This is an important case for the Pensions Office, because it will provide the framework for how future cases will be prosecuted.

The convictions against Mr Henderson are for not paying pensions for three years for Office Pavilion, and two and half years for Cayman Flooring. Although not paying employee pensions is considered a criminal offence, incarceration is not included as a penalty. However, Mr Henderson may have to serve some prison time if he does not pay what the court orders.

What remains to be seen is if the Solicitor General will bring more charges against Scott Henderson for continuing not to pay employee pensions for the past year and half that he has been in court. It is suspected that some employees continued to work for his companies, but no pensions had been paid.

A key witness at the trial, John Boutour, testified that he continued to work for both Office Pavilion and Cayman Flooring even when the companies had supposedly ceased operating. It was reported that Mr Boutour has left the Islands, because his work permit had not been renewed and he was found to be working without a work permit.

The Pensions Inspector, Pierre Lautischer, has been the investigating officer in the Scott Henderson case and also served as a witness at the trial.

This conviction comes on the heels of the conviction of employer Caristef Construction and Heavy Equipment, for failing to provide pensions information to the Pensions Office. Caristef is owned by Edward Steve McLaughlin and was fined $2,600. However, sources say that even after the conviction, Mr McLaughlin has ignored more requests for pensions information so there may be further charges in the offing by the Solicitor General.

Although the Caristef case is different from the Henderson case in that it concerns the failure to provide information, experts say that these two cases are changing a common perception that employers can get away without paying pensions with no consequences.

In recent months, he Pensions Office has referred four cases to the Legal Department and estimates that another six to 11 cases may be referred for prosecution in the next six months.