Reminds me of what some new posters say they have tried to di
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ged-covid-loan
More than half of all company directors struck off in Britain in the past 15 months were involved in alleged fraud or abuse of Covid-19 financial support schemes, official figures have revealed.
There were 1,200 directors disqualified between 1 April last year and 30 June this year, with 611 of the cases involving abuse of Covid-19 schemes, mainly in relation to taxpayer-backed bounce-back loans. About £1.1bn of loans have already been flagged as suspected fraud or error.
The figures are revealed after widespread concerns about fraud and abuse of the scheme. One roofer applied for a £13,000 loan and spent it on gambling in three weeks, while another director applied for a loan and used it to buy class A drugs.
The then chancellor Rishi Sunak launched the £46.6bn scheme in May 2020 in one of the biggest financial interventions during the pandemic, but faces scrutiny over the lax checks. Small and medium-sized businesses were allowed to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000 at a low interest rate from accredited lenders, with the government as the guarantor.
Mark Rostron, a partner at the legal firm Darwin Gray, who advises insolvency practitioners, said applicants were able to obtain loans by applying online and “ticking the right boxes” with minimal checks. He said: “A lot of people thought: ‘Fantastic – I get £50,000 and I don’t have to sign a personal guarantee.’He added: “The vast majority of directors were responsible, but there were varying levels of abuse, from people who misused funds to organised crime.”
Rostron said directors in some cases he had been involved in used the loans for personal use, with purchases including a Volkswagen campervan and a barge in London.
Theodore Agnew resigned last year as counterfraud minister, criticising the government’s “desperately inadequate” efforts to prevent fraud and abuse. He said “schoolboy errors” had been made in allowing companies to receive bounce-back loans
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ged-covid-loan
More than half of all company directors struck off in Britain in the past 15 months were involved in alleged fraud or abuse of Covid-19 financial support schemes, official figures have revealed.
There were 1,200 directors disqualified between 1 April last year and 30 June this year, with 611 of the cases involving abuse of Covid-19 schemes, mainly in relation to taxpayer-backed bounce-back loans. About £1.1bn of loans have already been flagged as suspected fraud or error.
The figures are revealed after widespread concerns about fraud and abuse of the scheme. One roofer applied for a £13,000 loan and spent it on gambling in three weeks, while another director applied for a loan and used it to buy class A drugs.
The then chancellor Rishi Sunak launched the £46.6bn scheme in May 2020 in one of the biggest financial interventions during the pandemic, but faces scrutiny over the lax checks. Small and medium-sized businesses were allowed to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000 at a low interest rate from accredited lenders, with the government as the guarantor.
Mark Rostron, a partner at the legal firm Darwin Gray, who advises insolvency practitioners, said applicants were able to obtain loans by applying online and “ticking the right boxes” with minimal checks. He said: “A lot of people thought: ‘Fantastic – I get £50,000 and I don’t have to sign a personal guarantee.’He added: “The vast majority of directors were responsible, but there were varying levels of abuse, from people who misused funds to organised crime.”
Rostron said directors in some cases he had been involved in used the loans for personal use, with purchases including a Volkswagen campervan and a barge in London.
Theodore Agnew resigned last year as counterfraud minister, criticising the government’s “desperately inadequate” efforts to prevent fraud and abuse. He said “schoolboy errors” had been made in allowing companies to receive bounce-back loans
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