A West Midlands lettings agent has been sentenced for fraudulently obtaining Covid support loans during the pandemic.
Questions are likely to be raised over how many more agents and property businesses could face investigation after it emerged that Harjinder Singh secured two separate Bounce Back Loans and later applied for a larger Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan without declaring the additional borrowing, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Singh, director of HP Property (International) Ltd, had legitimately received a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan in May 2020 before submitting a second application to another bank the following month, falsely claiming it was his first. He subsequently obtained a further £30,000 loan he was not entitled to receive.
The court heard that Singh also failed to disclose the second loan when applying for a separate £95,000 Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan later that year.
The case is likely to renew scrutiny of Covid-era business support schemes and whether further investigations involving property firms and agency operators could follow.
Singh, 44, of Stonnall Road, Aldridge, was sentenced to 22 months in prison, suspended for two years. He was also disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years, ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and undertake 20 days of rehabilitation activity.
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.
“The Insolvency Service remains committed to ensuring that Covid fraudsters face the consequences of their actions.”
HP Property (International) Ltd 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”.
Singh’s application for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan – a separate government-backed scheme to help small and medium-sized businesses safeguard against lost revenues and disrupted cashflow during the pandemic – was made in October 2020.
Under the scheme’s rules, 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 fraudulent £30,000, allowing him to keep the money.
HP Property (International) Ltd 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.
The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
