Rotherham director receives 13 year ban after fraudulently obtaining bounce back loans.
Director Muneed Ihsan, 26, from Rotherham, fraudulently obtained £150,000 worth of Covid-19 financial assistance along with friend who also took £50,000.
Ihsan was the director of three companies between 2019 and 2020. All three, Porthart Ltd, Bargain Basement 90 Ltd and Bargains Basement 90 Ltd, were registered at the same residential address in Rotherham, and were each placed into voluntary liquidation by Muneef Ihsan in September 2020.
The liquidations triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service, which found that Muneef Ihsan had opened a bank account for each company in June 2020, after the pandemic began, for the sole purpose of fraudulently obtaining three £50,000 Covid-19 Bounce Back Loans.
There was no evidence that any of the companies had ever traded and subsequently none of them were actually eligible to receive the Bounce Back Loans, which the government made available for genuine firms that were struggling keep going during lockdown.
When he received the loans, Ihsan made cash withdrawals from each of the companies’ bank accounts totalling £24,342. He then set about transferring the remainder of the Bounce Bank Loan funds to companies controlled by Mahir Towid Ul Haque, who he described as ‘a close friend’, as well as other third parties.
Mahir Towid Ul Haque (21), also from Rotherham, was appointed director of Hiitness Ltd in May 2020, which Ul Haque claimed was an online sports good retailer.
The company was placed into voluntary liquidation by Ul Haque in November 2020, which again resulted in an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
Investigators uncovered that similar to Muneef Ihsan, Ul Haque opened a bank account for the company in June 2020 and took out a £50,000 Covid-19 Bounce Back Loan.
Further enquiries established that Ul Haque used the loan funds to buy a Rolex watch, transferred £16,050 to his personal account, withdrew £8,410 in cash from the company bank account and transferred £12,500 to other third parties.
There was in fact no evidence that the Bounce Back Loan had been used for the benefit of Hiitness Ltd or that it had ever traded during Ul Haque’s time as a director of the business.
The Secretary of State accepted disqualification undertakings from both directors, with Muneef Ihsan banned for 13 years, and Mahir Towid Ul Haque banned for 6 years. This means that neither can ,directly or indirectly, be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without the permission of the court.