Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A fraudster who illegally secured a Covid loan after a friend coached him on how to make a false application has been jailed. Fahad Sheikh applied for a maximum-value £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in 2020, falsely stating that his Garage Cars 4U business had a turnover of £220,000. His business was in fact not trading…
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A former takeaway owner who withdrew tens of thousands of pounds from his bank account and bought items from Apple and Burberry instead of settling his business’s tax bill has been ordered to pay more than £70,000. Zhang Jin Chen was handed a confiscation order for £62,755 to be paid within three months, along with…
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An Oxfordshire landscaping boss who ignored his director ban and left £300,000 in unpaid tax across two firms has been banned from running companies for 12 years. Neil Aldridge was initially banned for three-and-a-half years in 2019 after his company, Neil Aldridge Landscapes Ltd, went into liquidation owing at least £82,650 to HM Revenue and…
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A Covid fraudster has been sentenced after illegally obtaining a second Bounce Back Loan for his company when businesses were only entitled to one. Jobanputra applied for two £50,000 Bounce Back Loans for his printing business, Genesis Web Limited, within a five-day period in the summer of 2020. The 41-year-old fraudulently declared on the second…
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A Yorkshire waste operator has been sentenced after illegally acting as a company director while bankrupt. Jonathan Waldron was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, when he appeared at York Crown Court on Wednesday 21 January. Waldron was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £1,000.…
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A convicted fraudster who secured £150,000 in Covid support for mobile phone shops in England and Wales has been ordered to repay all the money. Zahid Afzal made two legitimate applications for Bounce Back Loans totalling £52,500 on behalf of his companies Phone Bits Limited and Phones Onn Ltd, in 2020. However, Afzal then exploited…
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A bankrupt builder from Derby has been jailed after illegally obtaining more than £400,000 for home improvement projects. Nigel Dinneen secured advance payments from five victims in the Midlands without disclosing to them that he had been declared bankrupt in July 2019, as he was legally required to do. Dinneen was sentenced to 12 months…
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The former manager of a Nottingham city centre chicken shop was jailed after securing £50,000 in Covid support, despite having sold the business the previous year. Mujeebullah Khan applied for the maximum-value Bounce Back Loan on behalf of Chunky Chicken in May 2020. However, Khan and his business partner had sold the business based on Shakespeare…
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A Derby businessman who used Covid support scheme funds on online trading platforms has been jailed. Temidola Ojelabi secured £80,000 across two Bounce Back Loan applications for Platinum Gates Limited in 2020 when businesses were only entitled to a single loan. Money from the loans was then used on online trading platforms when it should…
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Taxpayers lost £10.9 billion to fraud and error as the previous government’s pandemic response left the front door open to fraud, an independent commissioner report has found. The Covid Counter Fraud Commissioner, Tom Hayhoe’s, final report to Parliament finds many schemes – including Bounce Back Loans and Eat Out to Help Out – were rolled…
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A music producer who falsified bank statements to convince a finance provider to lend his company £150,000 and fabricated invoices to HMRC has been disqualified for the maximum term of 15 years. Felix Milton dramatically misrepresented the financial position of his company, The Nameless Ltd, by millions of pounds in obtaining the loan in the autumn of 2021. Earlier that year, the company secured…
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A company claiming to provide financial services, which received around £175,000 from a client but failed to deliver promised services, has been shut down. Basic Prime Limited claimed to provide trade finance guarantees and credit enhancement services but was suspected by Insolvency Service investigators of operating an advance fee fraud scheme. The company at no…
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Businesses, charities and other high-value bank account holders are being targeted by fraudsters using software to steal tens of thousands of pounds with the amount stolen from some individual accounts exceeding £1 million, according to new research from the Cyber Defence Alliance (CDA) and Cifas. The scam begins with a phone call and ends with…
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