Many bad apples are falling from the bad tree. According to Pinsent Masons, 140 directors were banned in the year to 31 March 2022 for Bounceback and Recovery loan fraud and the net is, well not tightening around those who defrauded us all of more than £4.9 billion during the pandemic, but loosely hanging over some who turned £50,000 loans into Rolexes, bad jewellery and holiday homes.
Andrew Sackey, a partner of Pinsents said: "'Authorities like HMRC and the Insolvency Service are now hunting down those who made fraudulent claims", making it seem like crosshairs and pinholes of red laser lights are trailing the progress of the bad and the wicked. We are made to believe that the plot is thickening and HMRC officers in flak jackets have Leicester surrounded, as the pace of prosecutions quickens, with hundreds of millions of grubby money already seized. Matt Damon is being approached to play Terry, the SFO investigator with a Malteser habit, who recently landed ... let's call him Neville, a former pizza shop owner who was recently given a two-year prison sentence after the Insolvency Service prosecuted him for fraudulently applying for a Bounce Back loan for the pizza business he had already applied to dissolve.
Bad Neville; bad.
The City of London Police have increased investigations into coronavirus loan fraud by 50 per cent, suggesting it wants to accelerate prosecutions of Coronavirus fraud, taking the edge off the fact that only one in six burglaries are investigated and Andy was done for doing 23 in a 20mph zone in Solihull in June on his electric scooter.
Mind you, a ban is one of the lighter punishments company directors can face. Those convicted of fraud face custodial sentences and potentially being made personally liable for debts of the company (as of course you know - we added the latter for colour in case someone in your family picked up your phone and read this bulletin).
Effectively, they are coming for you. If you turned your loan into a party for your six year old, that Morgan you have always hankered after or the minimum payment on your Amex card, you are going to the big house - it's just a question of when.
