An accountant who helped himself to £27,000 from the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme as part of a bigger Covid loans fraud has been jailed for three years and eight months today.
Zeeshan Ashraf, 44, claimed a total of £268,102.07 and tried to claim £52,732.66 that he was not entitled to from support schemes set up to help struggling businesses during the pandemic.
Kate Hurst from the Crown Prosecution Service said:
“At a time of national crisis, organisations relied on people to make honest claims for support, but this allowed unscrupulous individuals to take advantage.
“This crucial lifeline to help businesses was seen by Zeeshan Ashraf as his personal piggy bank.
“A small amount of the money Ashraf received has been repaid but the CPS will seek to recover the remainder and return it to the public purse.
“The CPS and investigative agencies will continue to pursue fraudsters who dishonestly enrich themselves from government support grants and loans.”
The accountant from Hall Green in Birmingham used his company – AZ Certified Accounting Limited – to claim bounce back loans from Barclays, Starling, and NatWest banks in 2020.
In each application he said the money would help his business during the pandemic but spent the £50,000 he secured from each bank on his personal lifestyle. In his applications he inflated the turnover of the company to claim the maximum amount and did not disclose to the last two banks that he had already made an application to Barclays. Only one application was permitted.
He fraudulently received £91,174 under the Covid Job Retention Scheme by making multiple applications to HM Revenue and Customs on behalf of his business clients which were false or unauthorised. His claims for a further £38,082 did not succeed.
Ashraf swindled the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, administered by HMRC, out of £26,928 by making numerous applications on behalf of hospitality companies which did not exist, or which did not operate in the restaurant trade. He unsuccessfully tried to claim a further £14,651 under scheme.
His offending took place between April 2020 and April 2021. Ashraf pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud when he appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 18 September 2024. He was sentenced today, the 3rd of February 2025 at Birmingham Crown Court.
Additional Information
- Kate Hurst is a Unit Head in the CPS’s Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate.
- Zeeshan Ashraf (dob 5/7/1980) fraudulently claimed £150,000 under the business bounce back loan scheme, £91,000 from the Covid Job Retention Scheme, and £27,000 from the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme.
- He previously pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud under sections 1 and 2 of the Fraud Act 2006.
- The Bounce Back Loan Scheme was launched on 4 May 2020 and enabled small and medium sized businesses to borrow up to £50,000. The loans were available through several banks and the government covered the costs of all fees, repayments, and interest.
