Niall Hearty considers the spate of directors being struck off for pandemic support scheme abuse

With official figures showing that more than half of all UK company directors struck off over a 15-month period faced allegations of abuse of Covid-19 financial support schemes, Niall Hearty wrote about the situation.

In his piece, which was published by HMRC Enquiries, Investigations and Powers, Niall outlines the most significant coronavirus fraud statistics and explains the background to how such large-scale fraud was possible.

Niall emphasises that the original £5 billion estimate of losses suffered by the government’s bounce back loan scheme has now been revised down to £1.1 billion.

But he adds that the Insolvency Service being given an extra £100 million as part of the 2021 spending review for strategic investment and investigation initiatives may not have been necessary if the government had not been so short-sighted in its rush to devise and implement a system of Covid loans. It was a system, he concludes, that may have caused more problems than it solved.

The full article can be read here.