Leave pension scheme, Maxwells told

The Maxwell brothers were found not guilty in a 1996 trial

Ian and Kevin Maxwell have been asked to transfer out of the Maxwell Communications Pension Scheme.

The pension fund raided by their father Robert Maxwell in the early 1990s is currently £40m in deficit.

The fund's trustees, Law Debenture, have decided they need to cut potential future liabilities and have written to 1,400 non-retired members, including the brothers, requesting that they take their pensions elsewhere.

The brothers, Ian, 47, and Kevin, 44, cannot be compelled to leave the scheme and have yet to reply to the trustees' request.

Black hole

Like many other pensions, the Maxwell Communications scheme has seen its asset base eroded following sustained stock market falls.

It would definitely be in the spirit of the promise that they made when the scandal broke if Ian and Kevin moved their pension Eddie Thomas, Law Debenture, pension director

To fill the ever-widening black hole in the fund, the trustees recently imposed a 50% cut in all benefits paid to members who retired after 26 June 1992.

In addition, members who were still of working age have seen their future pension cut by half.

Ian and Kevin Maxwell are long-standing members of the scheme. They could not be expelled as they found not guilty of defrauding the Maxwell pensioners after an eight-month trial in 1996.

At the time of the Mirror pension scandal, Ian and Kevin Maxwell promised that they would do all they could to ease the plight of the scheme's members.

"It would definitely be in the spirit of the promise that they made when the scandal broke if Ian and Kevin moved their pension," Eddie Thomas, pension director at Law Debenture, told BBC News Online.

"This would make a difference and help secure the benefits of remaining members."