Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A disqualified director who continued to run two companies for more than five years while he was banned has been sentenced. Bharat Jogia was disqualified as a company director for 13 years in 2014 after not disputing that he caused Jogia Jewellers (UK) Limited to wrongfully claim more than £2 million from HM Revenue and…
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A business adviser from Surrey has been disqualified as a company director for a second time after failing to pay more than £100,000 in tax. Richard Beal was the sole director of management consultancy firm Larter Beal Limited, which owed more than £70,000 in corporation tax and £50,000 in VAT when it went into liquidation…
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A jailed fraudster has been ordered to hand back more than £120,000 after securing Covid loans in his wife’s name. Shohid Ahmed applied for three maximum-value Bounce Back Loans on behalf of Red Square Restaurants Limited, using his wife’s name because she had a better credit history. The 41-year-old, of Bardsey Crescent, Bradford, received £100,000…
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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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