Richard Courtenay’s nine Bounce Back Loan applications in May and June 2020 involved fraudulent declarations about the turnover of five companies and applying for multiple loans when businesses were only allowed one.
The 62-year-old failed to use the funds for business purposes and attempted to conceal them by swiftly moving them into his personal accounts or the bank accounts of his other companies.
Courtenay, of Larpent Avenue, London, pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud and one count of money laundering in July this year.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday 3 September. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and attend 10 days of rehabilitation activity.
Courtenay has repaid the £450,000 he fraudulently obtained in full, but only after Insolvency Service investigations into his criminal conduct began.
David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
“Richard Courtenay is an experienced businessman. It is therefore surprising that he claims he did not read his loan applications carefully or check them for accuracy.
The reality is that his actions involved determination in exploiting a scheme vulnerable to fraud. It is clear he was driven by greed, given the sheer number of Bounce Back Loans he obtained within such a short space of time.
Courtenay has shown limited remorse, denied any dishonesty and blamed the banks for him not keeping up with his repayments. His actions were dishonest when the scheme relied on the complete honesty of business owners while the country was in the grip of a pandemic.
The Insolvency Service has a proven track record in tackling Bounce Back Loan fraud and we will continue to ensure fraudsters like Courtenay are held to account for taking advantage of support intended to help businesses when they needed it most.”
Courtenay’s nine Bounce Back Loan applications of £50,000 each, the maximum allowed under the scheme, were made between 7 May and 25 June 2020 for the following five companies:
- Hotel Belgravia Limited
- Belgravia Rooms Limited
- Lebex Limited
- Directlingua Limited
- Belgravia Accommodation Ltd
In practice, the companies were interlinked, with Courtenay himself admitting that his business arrangements, “while clear in theory, often became confused to me.”
Courtenay said that Lebex Limited held leases on adjoining hotel buildings in Belgravia which were run as one hotel business under the name ‘Belgravia Rooms’.
‘Belgravia Rooms’ was run by Belgravia Rooms Limited but paid rent to Lebex Limited.
Courtenay said that Hotel Belgravia Limited was incorporated after Belgravia Rooms Limited was left with a bad credit rating following a county court judgment against it.
He said that he also rented out accommodation in flats in and around central London, which were advertised online through AirBnB. The plan was for all the expenses to be put through Belgravia Accommodation Ltd, he added.
Meanwhile, Courtenay said Directlingua Limited was an online teaching platform.
His first fraudulent application was for Hotel Belgravia Limited, a company only incorporated in January 2020 with Courtenay as its sole director.
He declared the company’s turnover was £500,000, but dormant accounts were filed for the company in December 2020.
By the end of May, the money had been moved into Lebex Limited and to two of Courtenay’s associates.
Three days later, Courtenay applied for a Bounce Back Loan for Belgravia Rooms Limited, falsely declaring its turnover as £400,000.
The funds were again transferred into his personal bank accounts.
Exactly one month later, he made a second fraudulent application for the same company, again declaring the £400,000 turnover and falsely stating it was the company’s only Bounce Back Loan application.
The money again went to his personal accounts and other businesses.
Courtenay fraudulently secured £200,000 in Bounce Back Loan funds from four separate banks for Lebex Limited between mid-May and late-June, inconsistently declaring turnovers of £600,000, £500,000 and finally £400,000.
He again falsely declared he had not already received a loan for the company.
The funds were misused in a similar pattern, moved into his personal accounts, his other companies, and to purchase cryptoassets.
For Directlingua Limited, he declared a turnover of £400,000 when the company had little more than £14,000 in cash, again using the funds personally.
For Belgravia Accommodation Ltd, where he was not the official director, he instructed one of the listed directors to apply for the £50,000, declaring a turnover of £250,000, with the funds again being transferred to his own account and that of an associate.
Courtenay was interviewed under caution by the Insolvency Service where he responded “no comment” to questions put to him.
In a prepared statement, he denied any dishonesty, claiming he believed the turnover figures were accurate but acknowledging he had not checked them.
He said he did not realise only one Bounce Back Loan was allowed per company, despite it clearly being stated on the application form.
Courtenay added that he assumed the banks would carry out their own checks and blamed them for not chasing him more persistently for repayments.
