BBL and other Covid abuse

The Insolvency Service has secured a maximum fifteen-year disqualification of Richard Oliver, for abuses of Covid related finance schemes.  Richard Oliver was the director of Exact Data Trading Co. Ltd which entered liquidation in December 2020.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Mr Oliver also secured a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan for Exact Data in June 2020, which the company was not eligible to receive.  In applying for the loan, Oliver declared that turnover for Exact Data was £220,000 and that his business was trading at the time of the application. However, no trading income was paid into Exact Data’s bank account between the end of March and start of July 2020.

However, the BBL was just the tip of the iceberg.  Exact Data was established in September 2019 and operated from Oliver’s home address, sourcing equipment and data on behalf of other third-party companies.  The company applied to at least 21 local authorities in June and July 2020 to be falsely registered for business rates in order that it could receive Small Business Relief Grants. Exact Data did not occupy or trade from any of the premises it falsely claimed to be registered at.

Mr Oliver supplied contradictory and unsubstantiated information to councils in making the applications. Bank statements and leases signed by Oliver which were provided as supporting documentation appear to have been fraudulently produced, according to Insolvency Service analysis. Grant payments worth a combined £95,000 were paid into Exact Data’s bank account by seven local authorities.

Neil North, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Richard Oliver caused his company to deliberately exploit not one, but two support schemes designed to help small businesses during the early days of the Covid pandemic. We will not tolerate such abuse of public money which is why we sought to remove Oliver from the corporate arena for the longest period possible. Tackling Covid support scheme abuse is a key priority for the Insolvency Service and this outcome should send a strong warning to other directors that we will take robust action against any misconduct we find.”