Covid loan fraudster who claimed £30k sentenced

A man who fraudulently claimed £30,000 in Covid Bounce Back loans during the pandemic has been given a two-year suspended jail term.

Sohail Cheema, 35, of Wolverhampton, was sentenced at the city's crown court after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering.

He inflated the turnover of a company he set up to find agency work as a bus driver to £60,000, said the Insolvency Service (IS), which investigated. He also applied for two separate loans in 2020, when businesses were only entitled to one.

Cheema was disqualified as a company director for 10 years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

The defendant, of Richmond Road, was also told he must complete 20 days of rehabilitation activity.

His business Sohail Cheema Limited, which went into liquidation in May 2021, had set up a new bank account with the "sole purpose of applying for a Bounce Back Loan in May 2020", IS said.

The Covid Bounce Back Loans were a government scheme set up to support small and medium-sized businesses affected by the pandemic.

The IS said it was seeking to recover the funds Cheema claimed under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

He had opened a business account , the government agency added.

"Both loans were transferred out of Cheema's business accounts on the day they were received, with none of the money used legitimately," a service spokesperson said.

The funds eventually formed part of a £90,000 payment to a third party in August 2021.

"Sohail Cheema deliberately made two fraudulent applications for Bounce Back Loans, knowing full well he was not entitled to either," said David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service.

"He overstated his company's turnover and, on the same day the money arrived, transferred it all out of his business accounts.

"Not a single penny was used to support his business as the scheme required.

"Bounce Back Loans were a lifeline for genuine businesses struggling through the pandemic, funded by the taxpayer."

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