Couple: We were conned into investing

THE Government has been accused of being “worse than useless” for its lack of support for thousands of Irish people who lost major portions of their pension savings as a result of the near-collapse of British insurance society Equitable Life.

A European Parliament committee has begun hearings into the Equitable Life debacle in which 6,500 Irish investors lost out millions of euro of promised returns on their pension investments.

A retired couple from Dublin who bought policies from Equitable, Pat and Beatrice Knowd, yesterday gave evidence to the committee in Brussels.