Azmi Shafi Ahmed from Essex and George Pinnegar from West Sussex have received a six year and an 11-year disqualification respectively for doing a £50K bounce back fraud. They received the bounce back loan for their companies after claiming that their business turnovers were multiple times more than the actual amount and had transferred a huge sum of money into their respective personal accounts.
Azmi Shafi Ahmed’s Case
Both the incidents date back to July of 2020. In the case of Azmi, he applied for a £50,000 bounce-back loan for the company, claiming that the company, AZ Financials Ltd, had a turnover of £200,000 in the previous year. An investigation was done after the company went into liquidation in November of 2022, revealing that the turnover was less than £40,000.
It was also later discovered that the £50,000 that he received was transferred to his personal bank account. So far, the company’s liquidator has received £25,000 as the repayment, with the remainder being repaid within the month.
George Pinnegar’s Case
In the case of George Pinnegar, who worked in London Sound Engineering Ltd, a bounce-back loan for £50,000 was requested after claiming for the company’s turnover to be £250,000.
The company went into liquidation in August of 2021, and the follow-up investigation revealed that the company had failed to meet one of the criteria for the loan; the company had not been trading actively for over a year, i.e., from the 1st of March 2020.
It was also discovered that of the £50,000, £38,000 of it was transferred to his personal account while the remainder was transferred to the bank account of a connected company.
Final Verdict
Both have been handed with a disqualification, which prevents them from being involved in the management, formation, or even the promotion of a company without the court’s permission. Ahmed was handed with a six-year disqualification starting on the 13th of June 2023, while Pinnegar’s was more severe with an 11-year disqualification starting a week after Ahmed; 20th June 2023.
