Stephen Burke, 63, overstated turnover for his 4 development companies to secured £50,000 on every agency he was not entitled to.
Burke was director of 4 corporations that offered companies to development initiatives: Yorkshire Plant Rent and Gross sales Ltd, Yorkshire Web site Preparation Ltd, Woodhouse Civil Engineering Ltd and Richmond Brokers Ltd.
One of many 4 corporations, Yorkshire Web site Preparation, was listed as dormant with Firms Home by January 2020.
Of the opposite three, their firm accounts ending January 2020 indicated turnover starting from simply £635 to £3,400.
Regardless of this, Burke, who was sole director of every firm, said on the appliance varieties that turnover was between £200,000 and £320,000 for every enterprise.
This allowed him to safe 4 bounce again loans for the complete £50,000 permitted underneath the scheme.
He spent £174,000 repaying a private mortgage to his former associate, which was additionally a breach of the loans’ situations as they may solely be spent on professional enterprise expenditure.
In February 2021, Burke sought to dissolve all 4 corporations. This was blocked because of the excellent loans being recognized, and as a substitute the businesses have been positioned in liquidation.
The liquidator has begun restoration motion.
Rob Clarke, chief investigator on the Insolvency Service mentioned: “Coronavirus help schemes have been launched to assist British companies by way of essentially the most testing of occasions, offering them with the monetary help to guard jobs and return to prosperity.
“Stephen Burke not solely sought to defraud the bounce again loans scheme for private achieve, however then sought to cowl his tracks by dissolving the businesses he’d used.
“This abhorrent conduct has rightly resulted in a prolonged ban, eradicating his capability to commerce with the advantage of restricted legal responsibility till 2033.”
