COVID Crooks Exposed UK

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COVID Crooks Exposed UK

Exposing those who greedily exploited the various Covid Support schemes including BBL, JRS & Grants.

01/07/2023

An absolute shocker for you tonight folks.

This is Davina Prasad

Prasad ran a female fashion business called 'Ultamodan Ltd' which has many extremely poor online reviews, including an average customer review rating of 1.1/5 on Google reviews.

In January 2023, the company was ordered into liquidation by order of the court, which is when Prasad's repeated abuse of the Bounce Back Loan scheme, which had been designed to support struggling businesses during Covid, came to light.

An investigation into her conduct as a director revealed that between June and August 2020, Prasad had applied for FOUR Bounce Back Loans, all of the maximum £50,000, with 4 different lenders for the same company.

Under the rules of the scheme, a company was only entitled to one loan up to a maximum of 25% of its annual turnover, with the maximum amount being £50,000.

At liquidation, just over £196,000 of the loans remained outstanding, ultimately leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill.

07/06/2023

This is Owen Duggan from Fishguard. He tried to swindle £4,000 of taxpayer funded COVID grants by claiming a dilapidated storage container was a state of the art gym.

Duggan, from Fishguard in West Wales and the chairman of a football club, tried to con his local council out of a Covid grant by claiming a derelict and tumbledown shed was actually a gym, a court has heard. Owen Duggan falsely made a bid for £4,000 in pandemic support by claiming the shed was a facility used by players of the club but a visit to the site by a suspicious inspector revealed the truth. After a council investigation the police were called in and the defendant found himself in the dock of Swansea Crown Court charged with fraud.

Jim Davis, prosecuting, told the court that at the time of the offence Duggan was chairman of Fishguard Sports AFC in Pembrokeshire, which for 80 years until 2017 had played its home matches at St Mary's Field, a plot of land owned by Dioceses of St David's. He said under the terms of an oral agreement struck in 1947 the club would pay a "small amount for rent" annually for use of the field. The court heard that in 2017 the club moved to a new home at Tregroes Park and at that point it emerged it had not paid any rent on St Mary's for the last decade. The church subsequently paid for changing rooms at St Mary's to be demolished but due to issues about insurance liability a derelict shed at the site was left in place and access to the field was closed.

The prosecutor said in June and October of 2020 Duggan made applications to Pembrokeshire Council on behalf of the club for Covid funds under schemes designed to support businesses and organisations as they dealt with the restrictions which came in the wake of the pandemic. The first grant was in the sum of £10,000 and the second for £1,000. Both these applications were properly made and were paid. However in the January of the following year the defendant made a third application, for £4,000 of support, in regard to the St Mary's ground and in which he claimed the shed at the site was a gym used by the club.

Mr Davis said an inspection of the site was carried out and it was found the shed was "very dilapidated and had not been used for some considerable time" and no evidence could be found it had been used as gym. An internal investigation was carried out and then the police were alerted to what appeared to be a fraudulent application. The defendant was arrested and questioned and denied any wrongdoing. Mr Davis said it was the prosecution case that the assertion that the St Mary's shed was being used as a gym was "entirely untrue".

07/06/2023

£600,000 OF TAXPAYER MONEY LOST TO HONG KONG

The Insolvency Service has successfully secured the winding-up of 11 companies for their part in a scheme which orchestrated systematic fraud against UK taxpayers during the covid-19 pandemic.

Between them, the companies claimed £500,000 through the Bounce Back Loan scheme. The companies claimed to be registered at various offices in Berkshire, Lancashire, London and Shropshire, however the Insolvency Service investigation could not identify trading premises for any of the businesses, nor that they had ever traded.

Nine of the companies were found to have claimed the maximum available £50,000 through the Bounce Back Loan scheme, with one company even claiming two loans. Investigators found a host of links between the various companies, including the use of common addresses, with funds being moved between them before ultimately being transferred to entities registered in Hong Kong.

The companies were identified by investigators due to their links to five other companies that had previously been wound up by the Insolvency Service in 2021 and 2022. These had themselves been responsible for fraudulently claiming £250,000 between them in Bounce Back Loans and £350,000 in Small Business Grants.

The Official Receiver was appointed liquidator of the 11 companies closed down by the court at the hearing on 22 May 2023. The Official Receiver is working to trace the funds and those responsible, with a view to recovering the money.

Dave Hope, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
We want to ensure the UK is a safe and fair place to trade, and if there is evidence sham companies are operating and involved in the systematic abuse of taxpayers’ money, we will take action to have them shut down.

These rogue firms abused the government’s support for genuine businesses in their time of greatest need.

Background
Laslett Industries Limited (company reg no 11690274)
JP Capital Management Ltd (formerly called Hampton Brookers Limited) (company reg no 11690206)
CMJA Limited (company reg no 11690056)
JK Distributions Limited (company reg no 11667454)
Kubrick Trade Ltd (company reg no 11386566)
Lowe Brokers Limited (company reg no 11474219)
Rubeum Auri Limited (company reg no 11886277)
Share Apartment Limited (company reg no 12248395)
Stella Management Limited (company reg no 11886188)
Globexel Ltd (company reg no 12063877)
JLS Enterprises Limited (company reg no 11830409)
The grounds for winding up the 11 companies included, variously: being vehicles for the abuse of the BBL Scheme; being a vehicle for the abuse of an invoice financing agreement; lack of transparency; failure to cooperate with the investigation; failure to maintain, preserve and/or deliver up adequate accounting records; failure to file statutory accounts and confirmation statements; facilitating fraudulent activity.

The companies were wound up by the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts Manchester on 22 May 2023

The Official Receiver was appointed as liquidator of the 11 companies on 22 May 2023 following the winding up orders being made by District Judge Ranson.

04/06/2023

A former pizza takeaway boss has appeared in court charged with an alleged £50,000 fraud connected to the Bounce Back Loan scheme brought in to support businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Shawana Hassan, 38, of Eltham Crescent, Thornaby, appeared before Teesside Magistrates' Court to face two charges, one of fraud and one of intent to conceal information.

The first charge, intent to conceal information, stated: "Between 24th October 2020 and 31st October 2020, having made an application for voluntary striking off of a company, namely Regent Pizzeria Limited, you being a director of said company did not secure that a copy of the application was given, within seven days, from the day on which the application was made, to Lloyds Bank PLC a creditor of the company, with intent to conceal from them the making of the said application."

The second charge of fraud by false representation read: "On or about 07/10/2020 at Stockton committed fraud in that you dishonestly made a false representation, namely that Regent Pizzeria Limited would make repayment of its Bounce Back Loan and b. that the funds would be used wholly for business purposes., intending to make a gain, namely, for yourself."

04/06/2023

This is Ricky Panesar from Tottenham. In 2020, he was featured by the Daily Mail as a business owner 'desperate' for government support after lockdown. He was quoted as saying about the Bounce Back Loan scheme 'We'd heard it was going to be super-quick, so we were really keen.'

Well it seems Mr Panesar was a little too keen as he has just been disqualified as a company director for 11 years for abusing that very same scheme to the tune of £100,000.

According to an Insolvency Service report he received not 1, but two Bounce Back Loans (against scheme rules) a month apart totalling £100,000 and subsequently transferred £13,500 to his personal bank account.

According to the report he never made a single repayment on either loan, leaving the taxpayer on the hook.

https://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/IESdatabase/viewdisqualdetail.asp?courtnumber=08170289

04/05/2023

This is Jonas Varslauskis from Peterborough.

He was the director of a freight company called Juone Trans Limited.

He applied for and received a £50,000 taxpayer-backed Bounce Back Loan in May 2020. However, after the company entered liquidation this prompted an investigation into his conduct.

Investigators found that Varslauskis had inflated his turnover to obtain a larger loan than to which the company was entitled. Based on its 2019 turnover, the company was actually entitled to a loan of no more than around £9,000. Varslauskis had input a turnover on the application of £200,000.

The Insolvency Service also noted that at least £18,000 of the money had been spent for his own personal benefit, and the director failed to account for the usage of the majority of the remaining funds or deliver up proper accounting records.

He has been disqualified as a director for 10 years.

04/05/2023

Here we have Tomas Petraska.

Petraska was the director of a company called Stonehill MOT Centre Limited.

In May 2020 he applied for and received a £50,000 taxpayer funded Bounce Back Loan. However after the company entered liquidation, investigators revealed that Petraska had deliberately inflated the company turnover on the application and in reality it was only entitled to a loan of around £27,000.

Investigators also discovered that the entirety of the loan was used to purchase vehicles that did not provide any economic benefit to the company, against the rules of the scheme which was designed to help businesses deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, the company was responsible for the death of a man in 2017 after he cut into oil drums that were incorrectly labelled and filled with petrol, causing an explosion. This resulted in an investigation and subsequent £80,000 fine from the HSE.

Petraska has been disqualified from acting as a company director for 10 years.

28/04/2023

This is Belinda Bakerman from Southport. In May 2020 she applied for a £50,000 taxpayer backed Bounce Back Loan on behalf of her ice cream business, Bella's Ice Cream Ltd.

However, when she placed the company into voluntary liquidation in October 2021 this triggered an investigation into her conduct.

Investigators found that Bakerman submitted a turnover figure on her loan application of £200,000, when records showed that the company's turnover in the previous year was actually around a quarter of this at just £52,742. Bakerman claimed the figure she had used was a 'projection'.

Furthermore, after the loan was paid out Bakerman transferred around £32,000 of the loan funds to another company associated with a relative. Bakerman failed to provide evidence that this provided any economic benefit to her own company, as was required by the rules of the scheme.

She has been disqualified for 10 years from acting as a company director. £49,000 of the loan remains unpaid.

28/04/2023

A London businessman has been sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after pleading guilty to fraud by abusing the Bounce Back Loan scheme.

Rajesh Dhirajlal Vaghela, 46, from Stanmore, received a £25,000 loan before closing his business in an effort to avoid repaying the taxpayer loan.

Vaghela was also ordered to pay £2150 court costs. He had repaid the loan in full before being sentenced.

The sentence follows six other criminal prosecutions of company directors for Covid loan abuse by the Insolvency Service in the last year, all of which resulted in convictions, including one immediate imprisonment.

Vaghela was caught through new powers granted to the Insolvency Service in December 2021, which allow it to investigate directors of dissolved companies who are suspected of closing their business to avoid repaying Covid-19 support loans.

Vaghela, who was a director of RKV Consultancy Ltd, which had traded as a consulting firm from Stanmore since its incorporation in March 2019, applied for a £25,000 Bounce Back Loan from his bank on behalf of the consultancy in May 2020.

The loan was paid into the company’s bank account but within a week of receiving the money, Vaghela filed paperwork with Companies House to have the business dissolved, and later transferred all the loan money to personal bank accounts.

The striking-off application to dissolve a company makes clear that creditors, such as a bank with an outstanding loan, should be notified within seven days of applying to close the business and that failure to notify interested parties is a criminal offence.

After RKV Consultancy Ltd was dissolved, in October 2020, the Insolvency Service and cross-government counter-fraud systems identified its closure as probable Bounce Back Loan fraud.

Investigators found that Vaghela had not informed his bank of his application to dissolve the consultancy – a breach of the law.

He pleaded guilty to charges under the Companies Act 2006 and Fraud Act 2006 at Willesden Magistrates Court in February 2023 and was sentenced by His Honour Judge Donne KC, on 13 April 2023 at Harrow Crown Court.

13/04/2023

A former councillor who attempted to steal more than £430,000 through the government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme has been jailed.

Mohammed Ikram was sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars after making 19 fraudulent claims under the initiative over four weeks in August and September 2020.

It is the first conviction for COVID scheme fraud by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The Treasury-backed measure allowed food businesses to offer customers a 50% discount in an attempt to get them to go out for a meal when coronavirus restrictions were relaxed.

Ikram's fake claims totalled £434,073 for eight different food outlets, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Six of the businesses were either "entirely fictitious" or legitimate companies he had no connection with, prosecutor Timothy Jacobs said.

Two were food outlets he had some connection with, but not a "current one", the court heard.

Ikram, 36, was a member of Keighley Town Council until his resignation in 2022, HMRC said.

Mr Jacobs told the court that eight of the 19 claims were paid by the government, with just over £189,000 being paid into bank accounts held by Ikram's wife.

The other 11 claims were rejected.

More than half the money paid out has been recovered by HMRC, but just under £93,000 is outstanding, the court was told.

Mr Jacobs said Ikram registered with the scheme and used his own name and telephone number for each of his claims, with the IP address used later traced to his home in Springfield Court, Keighley, West Yorkshire.

Thirteen of the claims related to either fake food outlets or real ones Ikram had no link with, including one address that was actually a barbers' shop, one that was a hotel that had closed down, and a community cafe that only operated every third Sunday, the court was told.

Ikram 'motivated by greed'

Mr Jacobs said five of the claims related to Khan's Cafe, which Ikram had been associated with until March 2020, "but his involvement had ceased by the time the claims were made".

The defendant and his wife were arrested in June 2021.

The case against his wife was later dropped.

Ikram admitted cheating the public revenue, fraud by false representation and associated money laundering at a hearing last June.

Deputy Circuit Judge Timothy Clayson told him: "Even if I accept your assertion that some of this money was obtained with a view to covering financial obligations, given the sums involved it's apparent the vast majority of this was motivated by greed."

12/04/2023

This is 'businessman' Richie Barratt from Burton.

He has been disqualified from being a director for 11 years after using his companies to take out unentitled Bounce Back Loans (BBL) totalling £100,000.

Richie Barratt was handed the ban after sending himself and family members thousands of pounds worth of the government loans which were intended to help businesses survive during the pandemic.

The 45-year-old was director of two companies, No 1 Carpet Cleaning and Trade Checkers Ltd, when he applied for two £50k BBL’s – a maximum sum which businesses were only able to apply for if they were trading as of March 1, 2020, and had been adversely affected by Covid.

Despite No 1 Carpet Cleaning having ceased trading in November 2019, Mr Barratt, of Footners Lane in Burton, applied for the loan in August 2020 by falsely claiming the business was still trading.

Profit and loss accounts prepared for the company for the period of November 2018 to November 2019 recorded a turnover of £56,667, while on the application Mr Barratt stated the company turnover for 2019 was £350,000.

The first £50,000 BBL was paid into No 1 Carpet’s bank account on August 18, 2020.

The very next day, £15,000 was transferred out of the company bank account to Mr Barratt and £25,000 was transferred to connected companies. Two months later, a further £10,000 was transferred to a connected company.

Mr Barratt also received a BBL worth £50k for his other company Trade Checkers Ltd. Of this, £35k was transferred to a family member of Mr Barratt.

He was snared following an investigation by The Insolvency Service, a government agency that tackles financial wrongdoing.

In March this year, the service disqualified Mr Barratt from being a company director for a period of 11 years. In its report, The Insolvency Service stated Mr Barratt “failed to provide any evidence” that the loans were for the benefit of his companies.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Barratt states: “I help build and grow multi-million-pound companies. I have built many companies for myself and now enjoy helping other people grow or start companies turning them into multi-million pound companies.”

07/03/2023

This is Simon Gorgin. Gorgin runs a jewellery repair business Simon Gorgin Jewellers based in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.

In May 2020, Gorgin applied for a £45,000 taxpayer-backed Bounce Back Loan on behalf of his company, P3 Estates Limited.

Bounce Back Loans were intended to support businesses that had been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. On his loan application, Gorgin stated that the company turnover for 2019 had been £180,000.

In April 2021, he applied to Companies House to voluntarily strike the company off the register with the full balance of the loan still outstanding. The company was dissolved in July 2021 which prompted an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

They discovered that the company had in fact never traded, meaning it was not entitled to the loan, and that 3 days after crediting the company bank account the full proceeds were transferred to a personal account in Gorgin's name.

Gorgin has been barred from acting as a company director for 12 years and a compensation order is being recommended to recover the outstanding amount.

26/01/2023

This is Antonia Parkes from Conwy, North Wales.

She was director of Conwy Valley Lodge Ltd, which ran a hotel close to Snowdonia in Wales. The company situation deteriorated after the start of the pandemic, and she sought financial assistance from the government. Through the Bounce Back Loan scheme, genuine businesses impacted by the pandemic could take out interest-free loans of up to £50,000.

The Insolvency Service investigation found that Parkes had secured a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan, immediately before she applied to dissolve the company.

The striking-off application to dissolve the company was explicit that interested parties and creditors, such as a bank with an outstanding loan, must be notified within seven days of making an application to dissolve a company. The form also highlighted that failure to notify interested parties is a criminal offence, however Parkes did not heed this warning.

She was sentenced on 14 December 2022 at Llandudno Magistrates Court to 26 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, with an unpaid work requirement of 120 hours.

06/01/2023

This is Mariyan Stoykov.

Stoykov was the director of a number of limited companies that operate in the construction and hospitality sectors.

In May and June 2020, he applied for two Bounce Back Loans totalling £100,000 on behalf of two of those companies - Talotech Limited and D.Rock Champagne Limited.

According to the Insolvency Service, he deliberately inflated the turnover figures provided on the loan applications to gain amounts to which the companies were not entitled.

Furthermore, the Insolvency Service investigation revealed that he spent around £75,000 of the £100,000 taxpayer-backed loans on himself, against the rules of the scheme.

As both companies entered into liquidation, the loans have gone unpaid and Mr Stoykov has left the taxpayer to foot the bill.

He was disqualified from acting as a company director for 11 years.

£100,000 would largely cover the annual salary of 3 NHS nurses. Instead it has gone into the pocket of a wealthy business owner.

20/12/2022

This is Emir Gradica from Saffron Walden.

Gradica was the director of 2EDDIES TRAVEL SERVICES LIMITED, which purported to operate as a takeaway business.

In May 2020 he applied for a £30,000 government backed Bounce Back Loan stating the company's turnover was £140,000.

However, an Insolvency Service investigation discovered that the company had filed dormant accounts for 2019, indicating that it was not trading in the previous year. In fact, between 4 April 2019 up to 12 May 2020 the Company received income of just £10,298- £10,000 of which related a Covid-support local authority grant which had also been transferred to a 3rd party.

It was also found that the majority of the loan had been transferred to a former director of the company. Gradica claimed this was to repay monies owed and to complete building works on the home of the former director, however no evidence was provided to the investigators.

He was disqualified from acting as a company director for 11 years.

16/12/2022

This is Darren Baker from Coventry.

Mr Baker is an artist who was famously invited to Buckingham Palace in 2011 to paint a portrait of the late Queen.

He was also a Trustee for a registered charity, The Leanne Baker Trust (Charity Number 1158097). Online articles suggest that the charity was set up in memory of his sister, Leanne Baker, who sadly took her own life in 2013. The charities stated aims were to provide support to others suffering with mental health related issues.

According to information published by the Insolvency Service, in October 2020 Darren Baker applied for a £45,000 Bounce Back Loan on behalf of the charity, and a further £5,000 'top up' in March 2021. On the loan application he stated the turnover for the charity was £200,000.

However, after the charity was placed into voluntary liquidation in September 2021, this triggered an Insolvency Service investigation which revealed that in actual fact, the income for the charity up to March 2019 totalled just £359 and up to March 2020 was £25,670 (although the information on the Charities Commission website puts the figure as closer to £14,000). Furthermore, the report states that 'There were no day-to-day overheads for the Charity and all expenses were derived from fundraising events and charitable activities/costs', raising questions as to it's need for a Bounce Back Loan in the first place.

It was also discovered that Mr Darren Baker failed to utilise the loan to the benefit of the organisation, as set out in the scheme rules, but in fact he paid £26,682 towards personal legal fees and also utilised funds totalling £13,874 which were not for the economic benefit of the charity.

The liquidators report indicates they have recovered circa £24,000 of monies owed to the company, however it is unclear how much of this will be repaid towards the loan, thereby leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill.

Mr Baker has been disqualified from acting as a company director for 7 years.

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