An £18,000 compensation award has been paid out after a former Winchester-based financial adviser mis-sold a personal pension.

The client, who has not been named, made an official complaint about bad advice from Yarrow Young Financial Services, in St Peter Street.

Now the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which pays out to victims of mis-selling when companies go bust, says other people in the area may be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

A spokesman said: "The claim related to pension advice and we have determined that the advice was not good. We don't know how many people may have been given bad advice."

Yarrow Young, formerly Worktown Adams Financial Services Ltd, was dissolved in December, 1998, after just eight months.

In addition to pensions, the firm would have advised on endowment mortgages and insurance.

Anyone who thinks they may have a complaint is being urged to get in touch with the scheme so that their claim can be assessed. The limit for compensation is £48,000.

The FSCS provides a safety net for consumers who have claims against regulated firms that are unable to pay them.

The spokesman said: "We pay out compensation but only as a last resort if the company is no longer in existence or does not have sufficient assets to pay."

The former Winchester firm is one of 11 in the South that the scheme has declared to be "in default".

The FSCS helpline is 020-78927300 and its website is www. fscs.org.uk