A retired police officer with bravery and commendation awards has been forced to repay £7,000 of his police pension after a mistake by the provider.

Roger Baldry, a former Metropolitan Police sergeant, has agreed to repay £425 monthly until 2028 to the Metropolitan Police pensions service MPS, administered by Sopra Steria, to clear the £7,000 overpayment.

But he is damning of the system and feels the government should do more to prevent overpayments from happening in the first place. He has even threatened to return his awards in protest at his treatment and lack of support.

Roger, 83, who was used to dealing with armed gangsters (he once tackled a man he knew was armed) and the most violent criminals in London during the 1950s and 60s, is far from a victim and should be enjoying his retirement.

But was shocked to receive a demand this summer that he repay his overpaid pension and it reminds him of similar overpayment mistakes by pension managers, including the MOD and the demands for repayments from Post Office staff, from mistakes by their employer.

He said: “How is the government going to deal with the latest scandal of overpayment of MOD pensions when successive governments have been unable to resolve existing scandals such as the 1980s blood injustice and the more recent shameful treatment of Post Office staff? Many of the victims will have passed away before they could be compensated.

“Some MOD pensioners have been required to repay eye-watering sums of money to the pension provider Equiniti. One retired sailor has been required to repay £27,000.

“I too have fallen foul to this. I joined the Metropolitan Police in the early 1960s with the terms and conditions of employment being that I joined the Met Police Pension Scheme into which I was obliged to pay 7.5% of my salary. Many years later and on retirement I was paying 11.5% of my salary which rewarded me with a decent pension, giving me a comfortable retirement free of financial worries.”

He admitted his own ‘bad decisions’ previously reduced his police pension by 66% of its value.

His pension was previously administrated by Equiniti, a government-appointed company, but this summer things got worse when pension provider MPS Pensions took over.

Roger added: “I have received a letter from MPS stating I had been overpaid many thousands of pounds and demanding repayment of that sum with the weaselly words, ‘sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you.’ No, this is not an inconvenience, it’s many thousands of pounds and close to a financial disaster.”

To ‘rub salt ‘ into his wounds did not receive any reply to his pleas for help from Narpo, the National Association of Retired Police Officers. He therefore, cancelled his membership and returned his long service medal as ‘clearly my police service counted for very little’: “What a shabby way to treat people who served their country loyally.”

A Sopra Steria spokesperson said: “Where a change in a member’s circumstances results in a pension overpayment, the administrator is required to recover those funds. Pension overpayments are rare, but we recognise the impact this process can have on any individual impacted.” Adding members could be offered ‘manageable repayment options’