The former head of a charity faces a substantial prison sentence after admitting to defrauding a pension scheme for workers with disabilities and using the money to buy houses in England and France.

Patrick McLarry, 71, took more than £250,000 from the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled and used it to buy homes for himself and his wife and pay off a debt over a pub lease.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR), which brought the prosecution, said McLarry set himself up as a pillar of society but in effect was stealing the pension savings of dozens of disabled workers.

His trial was due to begin on Monday at Salisbury crown court but McLarry, from Bere Alston, Devon, pleaded guilty to fraud. The judge, Andrew Barnett, told him: “It’s a serious matter and really the only outcome is a substantial prison sentence.”

TPR will seek a confiscation order to force McLarry to hand back all of the money he took from the scheme. At the time of committing the fraud, he was both the chief executive and chairman of the charity and a director of VerdePlanet Limited, the corporate trustee of the pension scheme.

Between March 2012 and February 2013 he arranged for £256,127 to be transferred from the scheme into bank accounts he controlled. He used the money to buy a home and a small warehouse in the south of France, a house in Hampshire, and repay a debt he owed over the purchase of a pub lease in Portsmouth.

McLarry tried to cover his tracks by forging documents, lying to TPR investigators about who owned the properties involved and then refusing to hand over vital evidence. He was convicted in 2017 of failing to hand over bank statements.

Nicola Parish, TPR’s executive director of frontline regulation, said: “McLarry posed as a pillar of the community while he was secretly working to steal for himself the pension savings of dozens of disabled workers. He lied repeatedly to try to muddy the waters around him but our investigators cut through his attempts at deception to uncover the truth.

“This prosecution shows that we will do everything in our power to take action against those criminals who raid pension pots for their own gain. We will now work to recover the funds McLarry took.”

His wife, Sandra, 59, was charged with four counts of money laundering but Alex Stein, for the prosecution, said it would not proceed on the charges and offered no evidence. She was found not guilty.

Based in Hampshire, Yateley Industries has a factory onsite that trains and employs about 60 people with disabilities. It focuses on specialised packing, including machine shrink wrapping and boxing.

Fraud by abuse of position carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. Sentencing will take place on 13 December.