Decade-long ban for director who abused Bounce Back Loan Scheme
The owner of a North London tyre shop has been banned as a director for 10 years after overstating his company’s turnover to secure a maximum-value Covid loan.
Shkelzen Gashi ran Smart Tyres Services Ltd from his address on Harringay Road from 2015 to 2022.
The 53-year-old claimed his company’s turnover was £250,000 when he applied to the bank for a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in 2020.
In reality, Smart Tyres had a turnover of little more than half that figure.
Gashi was banned as a company director until April 2035 and ordered to pay costs of £5,333 at a hearing of the High Court in Birmingham on Wednesday 2 April.
His ban started on Thursday 17 April.
Gashi has also repaid £8,000 of the Bounce Back Loan.
Kevin Read, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
Smart Tyres was incorporated in May 2015 with Gashi as the sole director and shareholder.
Gashi described the company as providing a full range of both mechanical and electrical repairs.
Insolvency Service analysis of the Smart Tyres’ accounts revealed it had a turnover of £134,401 for the 2019 calendar year.
However, Gashi falsely declared on the application form that its income was a quarter of a million pounds.
Gashi received the £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in October 2020.
Smart Tyres ceased trading in August 2022 with liabilities of more than £100,000.
A tyre shop operates from the same address Smart Tyres traded from. Gashi is not a director of this company.
The Bounce Back Loan Scheme helped small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000, at a low interest rate, guaranteed by the government.
The loans had to be repaid over six to 10 years, with payments starting one year after companies received the funds.
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