Director jailed over £100,000 Covid loan fraud

The director of a construction firm who admitted fraudulently obtaining two loans designed to help businesses recover from the Covid-19 pandemic has been jailed.

Arti Deda, 31, overstated the turnover of his company, Knight Workers Ltd, to obtain the maximum value of Bounce Back Loans worth £50,000 in 2020, when companies were only entitled to one.

None of the £100,000 was used for the economic benefit of the business as was required under the terms of the scheme, the Insolvency Service said.

Deda, from Slough, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday.

He had previously admitted two counts of fraud, one count of transferring criminal property and one count of failing to take all reasonable steps to securing compliance with company law.

Deda was also disqualified from serving as a company director for 10 years.

David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said the "significant" sentence reflected the "seriousness of Covid-related fraud".

"Bounce Back Loans were designed to support small and medium-sized businesses through the pandemic.

"Taxpayers' money should not have been used for personal purposes by company directors," he added.

Mr Snasdell said that the Insolvency Service was "committed to investigating" crimes which had a "substantial impact on the public purse".

Knight Workers, which claimed to be in the business of construction of domestic buildings, was incorporated in December 2017 with Deda as its sole director.

Insolvency Service investigators found minimal evidence of any trading in the construction industry.

Deda made the fraudulent applications to two separate banks for Bounce Back Loans in July 2020, falsely declaring the firm's turnover was both £390,000 and £495,000 for 2019.

He also claimed in securing the second Bounce Back Loan only to have made one application.

Deda applied to have Knight Workers liquidated in November 2021 in an attempt to avoid having to repay the loan.

The Insolvency Service said it was currently attempting to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The Bounce Back Loan scheme was part of then chancellor Rishi Sunak's efforts to ease the effects of the pandemic lockdowns on businesses.

By 2021, about £45bn had been borrowed by more than 1.4 million small firms.

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