AN ACCOUNTANT who helped himself to thousands from the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme as part of a bigger Covid loans fraud operation has been jailed.
Zeeshan Ashraf claimed a total of £268,102.07 and tried to claim £52,732.66 he was not entitled to from various support schemes set up to help struggling businesses during the pandemic, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The 44-year-old from Hall Green, Birmingham swindled the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, administered by HMRC, out of £26,928 by making numerous applications on behalf of hospitality companies which did not exist. He unsuccessfully tried to claim a further £14,651 under the scheme.
As well as this, he fraudulently received £91,174 under the Covid Job Retention Scheme by making multiple applications to HM Revenue and Customs on behalf of his business clients which were false or unauthorised, with claims for a further £38,082 being unsuccessful.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Ashraf used his company, AZ Certified Accounting Limited, to claim bounce back loans from Barclays, Starling, and NatWest banks in 2020.
In each application, he said the money would help his business during the pandemic but spent the £50,000 he secured from each bank on his personal lifestyle.
When making the applications, he inflated the turnover of the company to claim the maximum amount and did not disclose to the last two banks that he had already made an application to Barclays when only one application was permitted.
Ashraf pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud which took place between April 2020 and April 2021 when he appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on September 18 last year.
He was sentenced today (February 3) at Birmingham Crown Court to three years and eight months in prison.
Unit Head in the CPS’s Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, Kate Hurst, said: “At a time of national crisis, organisations relied on people to make honest claims for support, but this allowed unscrupulous individuals to take advantage.
“This crucial lifeline to help businesses was seen by Zeeshan Ashraf as his personal piggy bank.
“A small amount of the money Ashraf received has been repaid but the CPS will seek to recover the remainder and return it to the public purse.
“The CPS and investigative agencies will continue to pursue fraudsters who dishonestly enrich themselves from government support grants and loans.”
