Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A criminal from London has been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to four years and five months in prison after defrauding customers of potentially up to £500,000 over 19 months. The sentencing follows investigation and arrest by a specialist banking industry-sponsored police unit, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU). Between October 2022 and…
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New TSB data shows a series of recent scams in which criminals use social media to lure people into online friendships, then extract money ranging into the tens of thousands. TSB’s fraud expert, Stephanie Harrison, warns that ‘friendship fraud’ mirrors romance scams in its approach – with fraudsters building trust and rapport before demanding money.…
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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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Fraud prevention service, Cifas has revealed that more than 444,000 cases were recorded to the National Fraud Database (NFD) in 2025, the highest number ever recorded in a single year, and a 6% increase on 2024. The scale of fraud continues to accelerate, with Cifas members recording more than 1,200 cases every day and preventing…
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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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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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Research by Synectics Solutions has revealed that 23% of individuals who commit credit card-related fraud go on to offend again, the highest repeat-offending rate of any major financial product. This figure has grown from 17% to 23% in just five years, representing a 35% increase. Repeat offenders are also spreading their activity across multiple organisations,…
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