Indian-origin businessman jailed for loan fraud in UK
Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Feb, 2023 02:41 PM
London, Feb 16 (IANS) An Indian-origin businessman has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment in the UK for having abused an interest free loan scheme provided to businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kulwinder Singh Sidhu, 58, from Stanwell, pleaded guilty to offences under the Companies Act and the Fraud Act, having abused the Bounce Back Loan financial support scheme in 2020.
He was director of Wavylane Ltd, a haulage company based in Stanwell, and which had been trading since 2010. "Our action has ensured repayment of the loan money and taxpayers have not been left out of pocket," Julie Barnes, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said.
"Any other company directors who might be tempted into dissolving their business to try to keep public money they are not entitled to, should be aware they are risking a lengthy prison term," she added.
On 9 June, 2020 Sidhu applied for a 50,000 pound Bounce Back Loan from his bank on behalf of his business. Under the Bounce Back Loan scheme, genuine businesses impacted by the pandemic could take out interest-free taxpayer-backed loans of up to a maximum of 50,000 pound.
The loan was paid into the company bank account and on June 26, 2020 Sidhu filed paperwork with Companies House to have the business dissolved, having transferred the funds to his personal bank account within two days of receipt.
The striking-off application to dissolve the company was explicit that interested parties and creditors, such as a bank with an outstanding loan, must be notified within seven days of making an application to dissolve a company. The form also highlighted that failure to notify interested parties is a criminal offence, however Sidhu did not follow these rules.
The company was dissolved in October 2020, and was subsequently identified as likely Bounce Back Loan fraud by the Insolvency Service and cross-government counter-fraud systems.
The Insolvency Service investigation found that Sidhu had fraudulently overstated the company turnover in the Bounce Back Loan application, and within two days of receiving the money he had transferred it to his personal account before dispersing the funds to his son and another company.
He pleaded guilty to charges in December last year, and was sentenced on February 13, this year at Guildford Crown Court.
The court imposed a confiscation order for 50,000 pound, which Sidhu has paid in full. In addition to the custodial sentence, he was also disqualified as a company director for six years.
During a speech on Tuesday at a White House celebration for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, Biden said: "As 'CAM-a-la' said, we're all closely monitoring the storms, the floods, the landslides all across California." Biden -- the oldest-ever president at 80 -- is set to launch a 2024 re-election campaign, even as detractors question his 'mental acuity'.
Police found open cans of alcohol in Sukhpreet Singh's car after he was followed through a Derbyshire town swerving across lanes in November last year. The Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court heard that Singh, a Pizza Hut worker and a resident of Higher Albert Street, Chesterfield, was driving without a license.
The bullet discharged from a 9-mm handgun when Smith used it to strike the other man. It missed the man but went into the apartment and struck Mya in the head before grazing her mother, the Times reported. Mya was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she battled for three days before being declared dead on March 23.
Rapinder Kaur, 36, said she, her turban-wearing husband and their two-year-old child were subjected to racial taunts by guards during a visit to the castle last year, The Independent reported.
Kunal Chopra was returning from work when his Hyundai Getz collided head-on with a concrete pumping truck on William Hovell Drive last week, SBS Punjabi, a multicultural and multilingual broadcaster in Australia, reported. The Australian Capital Territory Ambulance Service paramedics declared Chopra dead on the scene.
Harinder Singh Randhawa, who is recuperating in the hospital under police custody, was driving a Peugeot with four passengers inside when it collided with a Toyota Hilux ute at an intersection at Pine Lodge, near Shepparton earlier this month, the SBS Punjabi channel reported. Randhawa will be appearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on June 8.
