Indian-origin woman jailed for over two years in UK for Rs 28 crore Covid loan fraud World News
An Indian-origin woman has been jailed for more than two years after she fraudulently obtained more than £216,000 in government-backed COVID-19 loans by inflating her company’s turnover and using much of the money for personal expenses and investments.Rupali Wagh, 50, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison by Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in Wales on Friday after he admitted five counts of fraud related to the UK’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme, which was introduced to help businesses survive the pandemic, PTI reported.Investigators found that Wagh obtained loans totaling £216,250 (Rs 2,80,75,521) for four businesses between May and September 2020 by submitting false turnover figures, and in one case obtained duplicate loans for the same company.Instead of using the money to support her business, she transferred large sums of money into personal bank accounts, paid off personal debts, invested in shares and wired more than £25,000 to an account in India, the news agency reported, citing the Insolvency Service.Her first fraudulent application was for £16,250 on behalf of One2Four Accounting Ltd. Wagh claimed the company had a turnover of £65,000, although records showed the company’s turnover in the previous year was only £39,000. Within weeks of receiving the funds, most of it had been transferred to her personal account.She later obtained a loan of up to £50,000 for Talensetu UK Ltd by claiming it had an annual turnover of £218,000, despite official documents showing it had been dormant. Days after receiving the money, she would transfer the full amount into her personal account for personal finance, stock market investments and transfers of more than £25,000 to India.The following month, Wagh successfully applied for another £50,000 bounce-back loan for the same company through another bank, falsely claiming that he had not previously received any loan under the scheme. Investigators said she again diverted nearly all of the funds for personal use.She also secured £50,000 in funding for White Coconut Ltd, an Indian street food business in Cardiff, which she overstated as having a turnover of £252,000, despite giving a much lower turnover of £72,000 when opening the company’s bank account. The application also incorrectly stated that although the company had previously received a loan of £18,000, it had not yet received a bounce back loan.Her last fraudulent application involved Indian Canteen Ltd, a company established in January 2020. Wagh secured another £50,000 loan by claiming an annual turnover of £206,000, although she had previously estimated the business would only generate £82,000. Investigators say she later transferred more than £25,000 of the funds to White Coconut Ltd.During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that someone else who Varger initially claimed had access to her computer submitted one of the requests without her knowledge. She later withdrew the account and admitted she acted alone.She also acknowledged using government-backed loans to pay off personal credit card debt and other loans and said she believed reducing her personal debt would ultimately benefit her business.David Snasdell, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said Wagg took advantage of a scheme to support genuine businesses during the pandemic.She deliberately inflated the company’s turnover, obtained duplicate loans and misappropriated public funds for personal gain, he said, adding that authorities remained committed to pursuing the COVID-19 fraud no matter how much time passed.
