Take a look at the details of this case.
Mr John Lee Leadbetter (“Mr Leadbetter”) breached the terms of the Bounce Back Loan (“BBL”) scheme by causing JLL Contracts Ltd (“JLL”) to overstate its turnover on its application for a BBL, resulting in the company receiving a BBL of £50,000 when he knew, or ought to have known, that JLL was not eligible for a loan of that value.
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 incorporated after 1 January 2019, it was eligible to use an estimated turnover.
- JLL was incorporated on 9 September 2019.
- On 7 November 2020 Mr Leadbetter declared on the company’s BBL application form an annual turnover of £210,000, and consequently on 9 November 2020 the company received a £50,000 BBL, the maximum loan amount possible under the BBL scheme.
- No evidence has been provided to show that an estimated turnover of £210,000 was reasonable.
- As per the rules of the BBL scheme, the BBL was to be used to provide economic benefit to businesses and not for personal purposes.
- The BBL funds were predominately paid to a third party.
- No satisfactory evidence has been provided showing that the entirety of the BBL funds were used for the economic benefit of JLL.
- At liquidation, JLL owed £50,000 to its creditors, the entirety of which was owed to the bank in respect of the BBL.
