On Friday, June 24, 2022, Abdulrazag Zagroba, 54, of Manchester, appeared at Manchester Crown Court where Recorder Hudson handed down a 24-month sentence for him.
Abdulrazag Zagroba was barred from serving as a director for 7 years as a result of the Insolvency Service’s first successful criminal prosecution of a bounce bank loan fraudster.
According to testimony in court, Amigo Pizza (Manchester) Ltd., which was formed in January 2020, had just one director, Zagroba.
The company ran a pizza delivery service in Manchester’s Stretford neighborhood until it was disbanded in October of that same year.
Less than two weeks after submitting his initial application to dissolve the company on June 17, 2020, Zagroba submitted an application for a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan.
Zagroba signed the loan declaration claiming the company would be able to make payments, but he did not inform the bank that the company was already in the process of being dissolved.
The company had already been dissolved by the time the loan was supposed to be returned in June 2021.
The Bounce Back Loan’s conditions made it clear that money may only be utilized for business needs, not for personal use.
However, Zagroba acknowledged that he had no plans to use the Bounce Back Loan for the company when questioned by Insolvency Service investigators under a code of confidentiality.
In order to send money to his family overseas, Zagroba allegedly arranged for friends to depart with about £14,000 in cash.
He purchased a car and insurance with the remaining £6,000.
At Manchester City Magistrate’s Court on May 9, he entered a plea of guilty to charges of fraudulently claiming COVID-19 financial support to which he was not entitled in violation of the Companies Act 2006 and the Fraud Act 2006.
According to Julie Barnes, the Insolvency Service’s Chief Investigator:
Loans from COVID were created to help operating businesses throughout the pandemic. However, Abdulrazag Zagroba cynically wanted to take advantage of the covid loan arrangement, and by dissolving his company, he hoped to thwart any efforts by the lender to take legal action to reclaim the overdue debt.
Other people who engaged in this behavior should use this punishment as a warning and come clean and repay the money before it’s too late.