Bounce Back Loan fraudster jailed following Insolvency Service investigations
A Blackburn tour operator has been jailed after securing two maximum-value £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loans when businesses were only entitled to one.
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Raja Imtiaz fraudulently applied for a second Bounce Back Loan on behalf of Al Fayroz Travel & Tourism Limited in the summer of 2020, just two weeks after securing another £50,000 loan for the company.
Imtiaz, of London Road, Blackburn, was jailed for two years and two months at Preston Crown Court on Thursday 18 September.
The 52-year-old was also disqualified as a company director for six-and-a-half years.
David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
Al Fayroz Travel & Tourism Limited was established in October 2017. Imtiaz was appointed as director in November 2019.
The two Bounce Back Loan applications were made to separate banks in late June and early July 2020.
Imtiaz fraudulently declared on the second application that it was his only application for a Bounce Back Loan for the business.
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In interviews with the Insolvency Service, Imtiaz claimed that he had only made the second application because he was concerned that the first loan request had not been approved.
Investigators discovered that this was dishonest as Imtiaz had already received the first £50,000 at the time of this second application.
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