A Blackburn business director who falsely applied for a Government loan by overstating his company’s turnover figures has been banned.

Ihsan Mahmood Khan has been disqualified from being the director of a company for the next eight years.

Khan, 32, of Woodbine Road, Blackburn, applied for Nujan Car Leasing (NCL) to receive a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan (BBL) during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the BBL scheme, businesses could apply for a loan of between £2,000 and £50,000 subject to a maximum of 25 per cent of its turnover.

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The Insolvency Service said the company received more money than it was entitled to under the BBL scheme.

NCL was incorporated on March 30, 2017, and filed dormant accounts at Companies House for the periods ending March 31, 2018.

Mr Khan said the company started trading on April 1, 2019, and was therefore eligible to for a loan.

Full accounts were filed at Companies House on September 23, 2020, for the period ending March 31, 2020, which declared a turnover of £35,582.

Bank statements for the calendar year – excluding receipts from Mr Khan and those referenced ‘investment’ – showed income totalling £30, 356.

Based on the turnover of £35,582, NCL was entitled to a maximum BBL of £8,895.50.

On June 10, 2020, Mr Khan applied to NCL’s bank for a BBL of £50,000, declaring a turnover of £300,000 for 2019.

He provided a business plan dated June 1, 2020, which stated one of its objectives as “achieve profitable status during our first year, be achieving turnover of £300,000.”

However, it was a predicted turnover for the 12-month period from June 2020 to May 2021 and not the estimated turnover from when the company started trading in April 2019 to the date of the BBL application.

NCL entered Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation on November 24, 2021. At liquidation, the BBL of £50,000 remained outstanding in its entirety.

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The liquidator subsequently recovered £10,000 from its director.

The disqualification, which came into force on March 28, bans Mr Khan from being the director of any company for eight years.

Peter Fulham, chief investigator of the criminal investigation team at the Insolvency Service, said: "Covid-19 financial support schemes were funded from the public purse to support genuine businesses during the pandemic.

"Directors who abused the scheme have exploited taxpayers.

“The Insolvency Service will act to remove directors who abused Bounce Back Loans from the business arena.”