A father and son have been handed suspended sentences following a prosecution by the Insolvency Service for abusing a covid recovery scheme.
James Leslie, 45, submitted inflated turnover figures to obtain two Bounce Back loans worth £50,000 each for construction firms that were not trading at the start of the pandemic.
His father, William Leslie, 74, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud after making a second Bounce Back loan application for Logan Housing Ltd, in which he and his son were the sole directors.
The Bounce Back Loan Scheme was a government initiative that allowed businesses to borrow between £2,000 and up to 25% of the company turnover in the calendar year 2019, with a maximum loan of £50,000, to help them operate during the pandemic.
‘Desperate for the money’
James Leslie applied for a £50,000 loan on behalf of Dartmouth Homes Ltd, where he was a director.
He claimed in the application that Dartmouth Homes’ turnover in 2019 was £250,000 and that the company had been badly affected by the pandemic. Leslie later admitted that Dartmouth Homes had been dormant for several years, was not trading and had no turnover.
Money from the loan was transferred by Leslie to Logan Housing Ltd and Northwick Homes Ltd, both companies where he was a director.
Leslie said he was aware he was committing an offence by making such a false declaration, but was “desperate for the money”.
He made a second fraudulent Bounce Back loan application a month later, in June 2020, claiming an overstated £300,000 turnover for his Bampton Developments Ltd business (the actual turnover was just over £19,000 for 2019).
Bampton Developments was also not trading at the time of the application. In interviews, Leslie admitted using the funds from this loan for the benefit of Northwick Homes.
Suspended sentences
Leslie’s father, William Leslie, also broke the rules of the scheme when he applied for a Bounce Back loan worth £50,000 for Logan Housing in May 2020.
An application for a separate £50,000 Bounce Back loan for the same company had been made just three days earlier.
William Leslie admitted that the first application had been made with his knowledge and consent and that he was acting dishonestly in making the second application.
On Tuesday 23 July, James Leslie was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for 18 months, at Bristol Crown Court. William Leslie was sentenced at the same hearing to 16 months in prison, suspended for 12 months.
Confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 are now being pursued against each defendant.
