Fraudsters Steal £5 Billion By Exploiting Lockdown Loan Scheme

1 min read

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), fraudsters heavily exploited the Covid Bounce Back Loan scheme, implemented by the Government to help small and medium-sized businesses survive the impact of lockdown restrictions. The project cost roughly £47 billion, with fraudsters pocketing £4.9 billion, or 11% of the total figure. RT has the story.

Established during the pandemic, the scheme offered loans of up to £50,000 to small and medium-sized businesses to help them cope with and recover from the pandemic. Having now closed, it handed out 1.5 million loans to a quarter of U.K. businesses, totalling around £47 billion.

An investigation by the NAO has discovered that “high levels of estimated fraud” was carried out by criminals after anti-fraud measures were “implemented too slowly“.

Out of the loans handed out, 11% have been deemed to be fraudulent, as of March, costing the U.K. Government nearly £4.9 billion.

“The true level of fraud will become clearer over time,” Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, stated, adding “it is clear Government needs to improve on its identification, quantification and recovery of fraudulent loans within the scheme“.

The NAO’s assessment warns the U.K. Government that more than a third of the loans, valued at £17 billion, might never be repaid due to both a combination of criminals fraudulently claiming money and businesses defaulting on their debt.

Worth reading in full.

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62 Comments
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John Dee
John Dee
4 years ago

Boris and co really couldn’t run the proverbial whelk stall…

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago

Loans?

None of this will be paid back, except by the very few chosen winners.

The vast majority will be written off, by which I mean we’ll borrow to cover it, with no intention of ever paying that back.

Constant crippling debt is the New Normal.

Meltonian1
Meltonian1
4 years ago

My small business took a small bounceback loan. The process was insecure and simple. Surely Sunak will be arrested? This is hard-earned public money…given away. The police need to work tirelessly to find who gave it all away.

mojo
mojo
4 years ago

Many small businesses didn’t trust the government as they knew it would be clawed back some how. Our own family chose not to accept any money but were sent an email, nevertheless, asking for repayment of any monies they had borrowed. Anyone who borrowed large sums knew they would never be given the opportunity trade for long enough to re establish their business and so declared themselves bankrupt.

It is shocking that Governments are full of very stupid people. They try to bribe taxpayers with their own money whilst trying to pull a fast one. Taxpayers are far more streetwise than any government.

LonePatriot
LonePatriot
4 years ago

Joe Rogan said his doctor, Pierre Kory, is part of a group that has used Ivermectin to quietly treat 200 Members of U.S. Congress for COVID19. Dr Simone Gold, from America’s Frontline Doctors, told that she has prescribed treatments for Congress. She still believes in her oath, but she is vocal saying she has been contacted by many in DC. Can you believe these demons? Healing for them are OK but not for us. Get your Ivermectin while you still can! https://ivmpharmacy.com

tom171uk
tom171uk
4 years ago

What? Really? Who’d have thought it?

Apart from anyone with more than one brain cell.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago

Wasn’t enabling fraud the main purpose of these “help programs”?

Liberty4UK
Liberty4UK
4 years ago

Well, I guess the pensioners who had the nerve to go on living will just have to pay up for the fraudsters who squirreled away lots of everyone’s tax money, through increased N.I. contribution, pensions that won’t keep up with inflation, and increased heating costs. Oh, and the students can pay too, through paying for their imprisonment.

How jolly that housing has gone up beyond the reach of many, while firms spent this gift money on houses, since they thought it one of the safer investments for unnecessary spare cash. How great that we all paid for ping parties, and the ridiculous test and trace debacle.

Could we now turn around please and ensure that our elderly and vulnerable can get the face to face to face doctors’ appointments, a decent pension, heating, and everything else that they have paid for, without smug fraudsters robbing them, and also messing the housing market, even if at one remove?

Richard Austin
Richard Austin
4 years ago

Makes no real odds at the end of the day since The Great Reset isn’t called “Reset” for nothing.

BoJo The Great
BoJo The Great
4 years ago

When furlough was first introduced, I thought about the billions to be claimed by criminals. Then as support schemes continued to appear, I thought about billions being claimed by criminals. Now, as the world introduces vaccine mandates and passports, I think about the billions being made by criminals.
The funny thing is, the only way I’m going to be able to survive in this new society, is to be a criminal…..and I’m going to be treated as a REAL criminal, like a 1930s German Jewish criminal…..and I’m not even going to get paid for the privilege!
If they come at me with mandates and passes, I may as well be proactive and start my criminal career early with an appropriate response.

primesinister
primesinister
4 years ago

for anybody interested hamworthy community centre dorset11th december get together turn up you will meet like minded people

Cristi.Neagu
Cristi.Neagu
4 years ago

This scheme costs, on average, nearly £1500 per employed person.

Norman
Norman
4 years ago

That is our money that the government has been so cavalier with. They are complicit.

mishmash
mishmash
4 years ago

Fraudsters, appropriate.
Here’s a video of Welsh leader Mark Drakeford saying he hopes people aren’t smart enough to realise the covid legislations are not lawful.

emel
emel
4 years ago

Isn’t all government expenditure fraudulent?

Anti_socialist
Anti_socialist
4 years ago
Reply to  emel

Tax is theft.

tom171uk
tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  Anti_socialist

And government is a protection racket.

Julian
Julian
4 years ago

Bigger story: “Fraudsters (world governments, big tech, big pharma) steal trillions by faking a pandemic”

BoJo The Great
BoJo The Great
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

You have hit the biggest nail there…..

MrTea
MrTea
4 years ago

How many of them will be the mates of Tories given the nod that the scheme was being set up so as to be easily abused?

Nobody2021
Nobody2021
4 years ago

In magic or confidence tricks this is called the misdirection isn’t it?

Maybe nobody will notice the Tory party donors and chums getting away with a lot more.

cornubian
cornubian
4 years ago

This is good news. The sooner we bankrupt this criminal regime that exists, in part, to syphon wealth from ordinary people and brown envelope it in broad daylight to their billionaire offshore masters, the sooner we can replace it with a just system of governance. And before anyone says, “but its not their money, its our money”, that is the whole point of my message. If they carry on printing money and raising taxes, the pain will begin to hurt so much that people will rebel against them. At the moment we are not hurting enough.

iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  cornubian

You can’t bankrupt governments: only their tax-payers!

cornubian
cornubian
4 years ago
Reply to  iane

Do you think I dont know that?

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago

So what? Test & Trace stole 37 billion for starters. Will the Government ministers responsible for allowing this fraud to happen ever be punished? Answers on a postcard.

Liberty4UK
Liberty4UK
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

That may depend on whether they have consciences.

I hope that they do, and that their sleep is deeply disturbed, since that is a small sign of hope if so. I suspect that they have largely suffocated their consciences, in order to survive.

As for social punishment, which expresses both the wrongness of what has happened, and warns others not to attempt the same, wow, I hope and pray so!

JayBee
JayBee
4 years ago

Peanuts. ‘Consultants’ stole £37 billion spent on ‘T&T’.
Tory donors stole 100s of billions spent on useless PPE, tests and gene therapies- sofar.

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  JayBee

No way was 37 billion spent on T &T. The bulk of that was spent on new IT, new as yet unseen tracking devices, more surveillance equipment, the so-called “passport” system and other nefarious projects not yet clear to us.

JamesM
JamesM
4 years ago

It was entirely foreseeable this would happen. However, the government doesn’t appear to be much concerned and is happily printing money. All this is now leading through to inflation, with the end result that millions are being dragged into poverty, particularly those pensioners who are not in receipt of gold-plated public sector pensions.

mikec
mikec
4 years ago

I was talking to a builder who had three separate small limited businesses, he planned to wind them up at year end 2021 and retire. You can guess what he’s done x3, none of his so called loans <20k required personal assurances, he’s feathered his nest. When I mentioned that pensioners and others in need were paying for it he just shrugged his shoulders. 4.9 billion is just the tip of a vast iceberg.

Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
4 years ago

That’s the problem with spaffing money during stupid unnecessary lockdowns, bribery was used to obtain compliance, and more money was wasted.

masksniffer22
masksniffer22
4 years ago

off topic, but..

D59AD6E6-D05C-433F-AA45-2D72845B4496.jpeg
ImpObs
ImpObs
4 years ago
Reply to  masksniffer22

George Orwell said “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever.”

Some smart-arse on twitter said “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on the human face-forever”

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  ImpObs

Already happened:

“To avoid the hassles of carrying a Covid-19 vaccination certificate everywhere, a 22-year-old student in Italy used a rather quirky method and tattooed the barcode of his COVID-19 vaccination certificate on his arm. Notably, Andrea Colonnetta got the Quick Response codes (QR code) associated with the pass tattooed on his left bicep so that it is always available for scanning everywhere he goes.!

qrcode.jpg
Backlash
Backlash
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

What bicep?!

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  masksniffer22

Qantas airline has a similar ‘Frequent Flyer Green Card’. It’s not a secret any more that ‘Climate Change’ and your ‘carbon footprint’ will determine whether you are a Good Citizen or Enemy of the State.
Politicians and those running the show will continue to fly in private jets and fart in your face.

Vir Cotto
Vir Cotto
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Only if you comply. I do not use those types of apps and never will.

RickH
RickH
4 years ago

Highly predictable.

Anti_socialist
Anti_socialist
4 years ago
Reply to  RickH

That comrade, I agree with.

BJs Brain is Missing
BJs Brain is Missing
4 years ago

This is nothing in comparison to the fraudsters such as Gates, bent politicians and ‘scientists’ etc.

sjonesy1999
sjonesy1999
4 years ago

Slaps head in amazement.

webtrekker
webtrekker
4 years ago
Reply to  sjonesy1999

Slaps head in amusement.

Cecil B
Cecil B
4 years ago

‘costing the U.K. Government nearly £4.9 billion.’

I beg to differ, the UK Government does not have any money. This bill will be handed to people who go out to work every day, including those on the minimum wage (whose gas and electric bills are about to rise by 250%)

The elites will not be asked to contribute because their money is offshore in places like the BVI (Yes I’m looking at you Mogg).

cornubian
cornubian
4 years ago
Reply to  Cecil B

“The bill will be handed to people who go out to work every day”. This is great news. The sooner the regimes criminality starts to really hurt the millions of ordinary order-followers who are standing by watching as the totalitarians take away our freedoms and destroy our society, the quicker we will see the necessary backlash.

A Y M
A Y M
4 years ago

Wow, who could have imagined printing unlimited money that future generations won’t be capable of paying off would lead to corrupt government contracts and fraudulent begging bowls?
Bigger governments are ALWAYS least efficient, honest, and freedom oriented and usually a sign of collapse.

Anti_socialist
Anti_socialist
4 years ago
Reply to  A Y M

It’s funny how the incompetent cock-up artists are always so incredibly effective at filling their own pockets & enriching themselves! Efficient & honest government has fuck all to do with it.

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Anti_socialist

If you happen to see Javid on the streets of Bromsgrove, tell him you’re hungry and penniless and ask if he’ll walk with you to the nearest ATM to withdraw £200 so you can buy some food. I think he can afford it.
After all, he is concerned for your health.

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