Here is the background to this case which resulted in the 11 year ban.
On 23 June 2020, Mr Abid Khan (“Mr Khan”) breached the terms of the Bounce Back Loan (“BBL”) scheme by causing AMP Enterprises (UK) Ltd (“AMP”) to overstate its turnover on its application for a BBL, resulting in the company receiving a BBL of £46,800 when he knew, or ought to have known, that AMP was not eligible for a loan of that value.
In addition, Mr Karim failed to ensure that the entirety of the BBL was used for the economic benefit of AMP contrary to the terms of the scheme.
In that:
- The BBL scheme terms allowed businesses to receive a loan of up to 25% of their annual turnover for the 2019 calendar year, which the applicant would self-certify when completing the BBL application.
- If a company was established after 01 January 2019, they were allowed to estimate the company turnover from the date the company started to trade. AMP was incorporated on 04 April 2013.
- Mr Karim declared on the company’s BBL application form an annual turnover of £187,200 for 2019, and consequently on 23 July 2020 AMP received a £46,800 BBL.
- Bank statements for the period 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 show total receipts of £16,250 attributable to business income.
- This would have meant the company was eligible to apply for a BBL of up to £4,063.
- The overstatement of turnover totalling £170,950 meant that AMP received £42,737 more than it was entitled to from the BBL scheme.
- The terms of the BBL scheme stated that the BBL was to be used only for the economic benefit of the business, used wholly for business purposes and not personal purposes.
- Between 24 July 2020 – 21 November 2020, Mr Karim caused AMP to make payments of £27,800 to himself.
- Of the £27,800 transactions, £27,800 came from BBL funds.
- These transactions were not for the economic benefit of AMP and were contrary to the terms of the scheme.
- At liquidation, AMP had liabilities totalling £76,205.44, of which £47,429.20 was owed to the bank in respect of the BBL.
