A spokeswoman for Opra said yesterday: “We are in contact with the [pension fund] trustees and employers at Allders about issues surrounding the pension fund.”

She refused to comment on the nature of the discussions other than to say that Opra was “liaising with the company” and that the case was still open.

The investigation emerged as Allders Department Stores and Allders Stores last night finally called in an administrator, Andrew Pepper, of Kroll.

The department store has paid up to £60,000 a month into its pension fund. However, the fund could cost about £60 million to wind up if Allders were to go into liquidation. The fund had a £14.5 million deficit at its last actuarial valuation.

Opra is believed to be worried about the role of Minerva, the property company that owns 60 per cent of the chain’s parent company. Minerva was the major partner in a consortium that bought a stake in Allders for £60 million two years ago.

In April 2004 the property company bought Allders’ Croydon store, a major asset, for £49 million.

Under the new Pensions Act, due to come into effect on April 6, shareholders and directors of companies that deliberately make transactions that deprive their pension scheme of funding can be forced to compensate the scheme at a later date.

Lawyers gave warning last night that transferring assets or paying dividends could be perceived as deliberately depriving a pension scheme of funding in certain circumstances.

These clauses within the Pensions Act are known as moral hazard clauses and are retrospective to April last year.

This retrospective threshold would pre-date the timing of the sale by Allders of its Croydon building to Minerva.

Until the new pensions super-regulator comes into force, also on April 6, Opra, its predecessor, is responsible for investigating any possible breaches of the moral hazard clauses.

Opra is empowered to give a company permission to make changes to its pension fund, in effect giving it clearance from the problematic clauses. However, that consent is not legally binding and could be retracted by the super-regulator at a later date.

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