Indian-origin printing firm boss convicted of COVID loan fraud in UK

London, Jan 30 (PTI) An Indian-origin boss of a London printing firm has been convicted of illegally obtaining a second loan for his company, when businesses were only entitled to one under the UK government’s COVID-19 Bounce Back Loan scheme.
     Prashant Jobanputra, 41, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, at the Old Bailey court in London on Tuesday, the UK’s Insolvency Service said in a statement.
     He was also disqualified as a company director for three years and fined 5,000 pounds.
     “Prashant Jobanputra fraudulently applied for two Bounce Back Loans when the rules were clear – businesses were only allowed one," said David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service.
     “We will be conducting further investigations to recover the remaining funds. Tackling COVID support scheme abuse remains a key priority for the Insolvency Service and we will continue to track down and prosecute fraudsters who stole from the public purse during a national emergency," he said.
     According to investigators, Jobanputra applied for two 50,000 pounds Bounce Back Loans for his printing business named Genesis Web Limited, within a five-day period in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
     He is said to have “fraudulently declared” on the second application that this was the only Bounce Back Loan he had applied for.
     He has since repaid 15,371 pounds of the second loan in November 2025, with the remaining 35,000 pounds being pursued by the Insolvency Service under the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
     Genesis Web Limited was registered with the UK’s Companies House in November 2004, with Jobanputra logged as director.
     The company printed photos onto personalised items for both businesses and individual customers, producing them in large quantities.
     He was found to be the sole director of the company when he applied to a separate bank for the second Bounce Back Loan in July 2020.
     In interviews, Jobanputra said his company was badly affected by the pandemic and that he did not read the loan agreement which clearly stated that businesses were only entitled to a single Bounce Back Loan, the Insolvency Service stated.
     Genesis Web Limited went into liquidation in October 2021 and was dissolved in March 2024.
     The Bounce Back loan scheme was launched during the COVID lockdown period by the then UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to help small and medium-sized businesses borrow between 2,000 and 50,000 pounds, at a low interest rate, guaranteed by the British government.
     These loans were made on the condition that they were used to purchase a company asset to provide an economic benefit to the business.
     The money lent to the company under the now-dissolved scheme was required to be paid back over six or 10 years, with payments starting 12 months after the company received the loan.
     If the money borrowed by a company was not repaid or it was involved in misconduct, then the firm's directors faced the prospect of an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)