Convicted fraudsters face confiscation orders

A fraudster jailed for two-and-a-half years in March 2024, faces more jail time unless he repays the £30,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan (BBL) he obtained fraudulently in May 2020.

Watford restaurateur Ilhan Kekec claimed the £30,000 by overstating his company’s income.

He then used the loan, which was originally intended to help businesses struggling during the pandemic, to pay off personal debts.

Kekec had run the Derwish Meze and BBQ restaurant for three years under the name of Helosh Ltd, before opening the Derwish Kebab restaurant in 2020, under the name of Hizirali Ltd.

However, this company only traded for three weeks before it was closed indefinitely due to the lockdown. When making the BBL application, he falsely claimed its turnover was £125,000.

In January this year, the Insolvency Service confirmed that, following a confiscation hearing in December 2024, Kekec had been ordered to repay £37,426 within three months or face an additional 18 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay £15,900 in costs.

As a spokesman for the Insolvency Service commented, Kekec not only supplied false information to fraudulently acquire £30,000 in taxpayer funds at the start of the pandemic but then proceeded to use the loan to pay off personal debts.

He added that Kekec had claimed in his application that he would use the money for the economic benefit of his business.

Roger Isaacs, Forensic Partner at Milsted Langdon, said: “The Proceeds of Crime Act can be used not only to deprive those convicted of the benefit of their criminal acts (by means of a Confiscation Order but also to recover funds for the victim by means of a Compensation Order. 

“However, in cases such as this in which the victim is effectively the UK Government, there is no need to ask the court to make specific provisions for compensation.

“There is a particularly strong incentive for those convicted to repay funds that have been misappropriated in cases such as this in which the penalty for non-payment (18 months in jail) is more than half the prison term of two and a half years that was given for the underlying conviction.”

Sources: Gov.UK

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