A Manchester businessman has been sentenced to jail for two years and four months after admitting he claimed £150,000 in Covid Bounce Back loans (BBLs) to which he was not entitled and for acting as a Director while disqualified.

Matloob Hussain was the director of Dynasty Group Ltd, a wholesaler of clothes and footwear, and NA Collection Mcr Ltd, which provided online sales of products such as confectionery.

Under the BBL scheme rules, each business was entitled to one loan of up to £50,000. However, in 2020, having already applied for a BBL for Dynasty Group Ltd, Hussain claimed a second £50,000 loan for both businesses, while overstating NA Collection Mcr’s turnover.

A third BBL related to a sole-tradership, but he again overestimated the turnover and provided a false statement that the money would be used to benefit the business.

In addition to all of this, a separate investigation by the Insolvency Service found that Hussain had been acting as a Director of Dynasty Group Ltd while disqualified, having already been banned from acting as a director in 2021 of NA Collection Mcr Ltd.

Roger Isaacs, Forensics Partner at Milsted Langdon, comments: “Cases involving Bounce Back Loans continue to come through the courts. The fact that this is still ongoing several years after the funds were obtained shows just how long it can take to investigate these matters fully.

“While some claims may have derived from misunderstanding the rules at the time, that is clearly not the case when multiple applications have been made on the basis of figures that have been  deliberately overstated.

“What we are now seeing is a more consistent effort to pursue those cases, particularly where there is evidence of abuse of the BBL scheme.

“The fact that Hussain was able to obtain a BBL for a company in circumstances in which he had been banned from being its director shows just how.”

Sources: BBC News