Shabana Mahmood, Secretary of State for Justice Announces Any Convicted Criminal, Including BBL Blaggers, Can be Barred from Pubs, Concerts and Sports Matches and Have their Freedoms Curtailed with Driving Limits, Travel Bans and be Confined into Specific Areas Under New Sentencing Powers

Those stepped up sanctions for Bounce Back Loan blaggers who haven’t done the right thing and set up a repayment plan or haven’t repaid their dodgy BBL in full, and in fact anyone found guilty of a criminal offence, that I recently warned you of are about to play out in court rooms across the land, read on to find out what the Government have planned:

Criminals will be barred from pubs, concerts and sports matches under new sentencing powers unveiled by the Government today (Sunday 24 August) as part of its Plan for Change.

Judges will be able to curtail offenders’ freedoms with driving limits, travel bans and restriction zones confining them into specific areas.

The changes will toughen up community punishments to deter reoffending and force offenders back onto the straight-and-narrow.

As part of the Government’s work to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, offenders coming out of prison and supervised by the Probation Service will also face similar restrictions and an expanded mandatory drug testing regime.

In future, criminals without known drug habits will face this scrutiny, not just those with a history of substance misuse.

Offenders who break the rules face being brought back to court or hauled back to prison as punishment depending on the sentence they are serving.

Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said:

• Widening the range of punishments available to judges is part of our Plan for Change to cut crime and make streets safer.
• When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished. Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there too.
• These new punishments should remind all offenders that, under this Government, crime does not pay.
• Rightly, the public expect the government to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, and that’s what we’re doing.

Currently, judges are able to give out limited bans for specific crimes, for example football bans for crimes committed inside a stadium on match day, to prevent further antisocial behaviour.

The Government will change the law shortly so such bans can be handed down as a form of punishment for any offence in any circumstance.

It will form part of wider reforms to sentencing to ensure punishments cut crime and prisons never again run out of places for dangerous offenders.

Over 2,400 prison places have opened since July 2024 with the Government investing £7 billion to create a total of 14,000 as the prison population increases.

Investment in the Probation Service will also receive a huge boost with an increase of up to £700 million by 2028/29, up from the annual budget of around £1.6 billion today.

This week it was revealed the number of Probation Officers has increased by seven per cent in the last 12 months, with trainee probation officer numbers also seeing a surge of 15 per cent. This follows the Government’s commitment to recruit a further 1,300 this year, in addition to the 1,000 trainee probation officers recruited last year.

New technology, including artificial intelligence, will lighten the administrative burden and free up time for probation staff to increase supervision of the most dangerous offenders and keep the public safe.

BBL Summer of Love – BBL Winter of Regret

Please familiarise yourself with the following news updates, as we are now entering a new and important stage of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme:

Lenders Intensify Efforts to Protect Their Reputations and Vulnerable Customers as New Covid Corruption Commissioner Approved Bounce Back Loan Recovery Initiatives Loom – Over 200,000 Defaulters to be Targeted in the Coming Weeks

Warning Issued – Set Up An Affordable Repayment Plan ASAP If You Over-Egged Your Turnover (Either by Mistake or Otherwise) to Get a Bounce Back Loan as You Have One Final, Small Window of Opportunity to do the Right Thing Before No Nonsense Recovery Action Begins

A Reminder of How to Set Up a Repayment Plan on a Defaulted (But Possibly Not a 100% Legitimately Acquired) Bounce Back Loan, and an Insight Into What Each Individual Lender Will or Won’t Ask You During That Process

How Many “Potential Fraud Red Flags” Have You Triggered? The 26 Red Flags Used as Part of the “BBL Summer of Love – BBL Winter of Regret” Recovery Action and Include “Turnover Over-Egging”, “Rapid Withdrawal of BBL Funds”, “Dormant Accounts” and “I.P.” Alerts

Pilot Scheme to Recover Fraudulent Duplicate Bounce Back Loans to Go Live – An Initial 200 People Are Going to Be Targeted During the “BBL Summer of Love”, If Successful the Rest Will Be Targeted During the “BBL Winter of Regret”

Covid Corruption Commissioner Targets Zombie Firms with Unpaid Bounce Back Loans in “BBL Summer of Love – BBL Winter of Regret” Crackdown, with One Serving Member of Parliament, James McMurdock, the MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock Having Been Told to Get His Dodgy BBL’s Sorted

What Do You Risk Losing and How Can the Powers That Be Come After You in the BBL Winter of Regret, If You Blagged a Bounce Back Loan and Fail to Set Up a Repayment Plan During the BBL Summer of Love?

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Lays Into the Department for Trade and Business Over BBL Scheme Recoveries, Blissfully Unaware the BBL Summer of Love and BBL Winter of Regret Initiative is About to Launch

How Do They Know You Over-Egged Your Turnover or Over-Estimated Your Estimated Turnover (Yes, They Are Going After People for That Too) to Get a Bounce Back Loan?

The Department for Business and Trade Release Their “Counter Fraud Strategy” Hinting at Their New Efforts to Recover Funds from COVID-19 Grants and BBL’s, as a Result of Fraud and Error, and Managing Credit Losses/Fraud in COVID-19 Loan Guarantee Schemes.

Government Gives a Big Thumbs Up to My Helpline Callers That Have Already Got Themselves off the BBL Naughty List by Setting up an Affordable Repayment Plan – Take a Look at the Feedback from Those That Have and Those That Have Been Knocked Back

How the Public Sector Fraud Authority Enforcement Unit Will Use the Personal Data of Those They Go After in the “BBL Winter of Regret” for Blagging a Bounce Back Loan Including Monitoring and Recording Their Social Media Account Interactions and Friends/Associates

Deep-Dive the Insolvency Service’s Investigations and Enforcement Strategy 2026 to 2031, That They are Hoping Will Mop Up 10’000s of Bounce Back Loan Blaggers in the BBL Winter of Regret

The Insolvency Service is Gearing Up for the BBL Winter of Regret, as Today, the 16th of July 2025, it Launches Its Strategy to Tackle Bounce Back Loan Blaggers and Other Scamsters

Cabinet Office Counter Fraud Privacy Notice Updated 7 July 2025 – The Cabinet Office Were of Course Part of “Bounce Back Loan Fraud Analytics Variant Pilot” That Worked Out Who Over-Egged Their Turnover

Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: Factsheets:

Below you will find links to several factsheets that will give you an insight into the extraordinary powers that will be put in the hands of Civil Servants, and others, to enable them to recover funds from Bounce Back Loan Blaggers if they haven’t set up an affordable and sustainable repayment plan on their dodgy BBL, once the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill becomes law.

PSFA Civil Penalties Powers in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: Factsheet

PSFA Rights and Methods of Recovery in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: Factsheet

PSFA Search and Seizure and Disposal of Property Powers in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: Factsheet

PSFA Information Gathering and Sharing Powers in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: Factsheet

Oversight, Inspections and Safeguards in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill: Factsheet

Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill Overview: Factsheet

In the interests of openness and transparency, I am in constant contact with the Covid Corruption Commissioner and have had meetings with him, and I am aware of the new recovery initiatives, and will report on any shady goings-on or otherwise by Lenders or the Government as they are rolled out.