A Walsall-based property developer and lettings agent has been sentenced after fraudulently obtaining two separate Covid support loans designed to help businesses through the pandemic.
Harjinder Singh had already claimed a legitimate £20,000 Bounce Back Loan for HP Property (International) in May 2020 when he went back for more the following month.
The 44-year-old lied to a second bank, falsely declaring it was his first application, and secured a £30,000 Bounce Back Loan to which he was not entitled. He then failed to declare the £30,000 loan when he applied for a £95,000 Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan later that year.
Singh, who is from Aldridge in Walsall, was sentenced to 22 months in prison, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday 12 May.
He was also disqualified as a company director for seven years while being ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and 20 days of rehabilitation activities.
David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Harjinder Singh exploited Covid support schemes that were created in good faith to help businesses survive one of the most difficult periods in recent memory.
“He made deliberate false declarations across two separate applications to keep money he had no right to.”
HP Property (International) was set up in January 2016 and traded as a residential property developer and letting agent.
In an interview with the Insolvency Service, Singh acknowledged the application for a £30,000 Bounce Back Loan broke the rules of the scheme, admitting he had not read the terms and conditions and saying “we just clicked it”.
In addition to applying for a second Bounce Back Loan for which he wasn’t eligible, Singh applied for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan –a separate government-backed scheme to support SMEs through lost revenues and disrupted cashflow during the pandemic.
Under the rules of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan, for which Singh applied in October 2020, any outstanding Bounce Back Loan had to be repaid using the new funding, meaning Singh was legally required to disclose it. He disclosed the first £20,000 Bounce Back Loan which was duly repaid as the scheme required, but failed to declare the second £30,000, allowing him to keep the money.
HP Property (International) went into compulsory liquidation in November 2021 after the lender of the business interruption loan went to court to recover the money it was owed.