Niall Hearty assesses the scale of coronavirus Bounce Back Loan Scheme fraud

With less than a fifth of Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) fraud having been investigated in the past two years, Niall Hearty wrote about the size and nature of the problem.

In his piece, Niall cites statistics from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS), which show that the National Investigation Service has opened investigations into possible BBLS fraud totalling £160 million; even though the full amount of such suspected fraud is £1.1 billion.

He emphasises that huge amounts of money were lost to fraud due, at least to some degree, to a lack of adequate controls in place at many banks and the government prioritising rapid action over properly-considered strategies.

Niall says that the government was much slower to recognise the potential for Covid-related fraud than those looking to carry out such offences. This led to the National Audit Office criticising what it viewed as limited efforts to regain what had been lost to fraud and the government’s emphasis on speed of payments ahead of anything else.

He concludes that while there was a need to help businesses who faced major threats due to the pandemic, the government’s rush to act has proved costly.

Niall’s article was published by Security Matters.