A former restaurant manager used Covid Bounce Back Loans to fund a lavish shopping spree in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.
Sehrish Yasmin has been found guilty of fraudulently obtaining two Covid Bounce Back Loans worth £100,000 for Manny Steak House Ltd in south Manchester.
Despite the rules stating that businesses were only entitled to one loan, Yasmin applied for and secured two £50,000 loans for the same company within a month of each other in 2020.
Yasmin, who is also a qualified nurse, then used over £12,000 of the funds to splurge on jewellery, Manchester Crown Court was told. The court sentenced the 32-year-old to a 10-month suspended prison sentence last week.
During her sentencing hearing earlier this month, it was revealed that Yasmin has now repaid both loans in full. She was also ordered to pay costs and compensation totalling £5,000 within 28 days.
The Government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme was introduced to help smaller businesses access finance quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The funds from the loan were intended solely for the economic benefit of the business, not for personal use.
The court heard that Yasmin should have begun repaying each loan one year after receiving the funds in 2020. However, she only started repayments once investigations by the Insolvency Service began in December 2022, reports the Manchester Evening News.
She further violated the law when Manny Steak House was liquidated in May 2021 by failing to provide books and records to the liquidator upon request, the court heard.
David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, commented: “Bounce Back Loans were introduced by the government to help small and medium-sized businesses survive during the Covid pandemic.”
“Sehrish Yasmin exploited this taxpayer-backed scheme by applying for two loans when businesses were only entitled to one and compounded this by spending significant sums on jewellery.”
“While we are of course pleased that Yasmin has finally acknowledged her wrongdoing and repaid the two loans in full, we are disappointed that this only happened following our extensive investigations into her fraudulent activities.”