Salford man jailed after fraudulently claiming £150,000 pounds in Covid business loans

A Salford businessman has been jailed after admitting fraud offences linked to Covid support loans worth £150,000 pounds.

Matloob Hussain, 49, from Eccles, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison at Manchester Crown Court on 25 March after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud and one count of acting as a company director while disqualified.

The Insolvency Service said Hussain applied for three Bounce Back Loans in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, when businesses were offered financial support to survive lockdown restrictions. Each business was only entitled to a single loan, but he obtained additional funding by submitting false information.

Hussain was the director of Dynasty Group Ltd, a clothes and footwear wholesaler based in Eccles, and NA Collection Mcr Ltd, an online retailer operating in Manchester. He secured a second loan of £50,000 pounds for each company and overstated the turnover of NA Collection to increase the amount he could claim.

A third loan was linked to a sole trading business, where he again exaggerated turnover figures and falsely stated the funds would benefit the business.

At the time of the offences, Hussain had already been disqualified from acting as a company director for ten years in 2021. Despite this, he continued to run business activities in breach of the ban.

Insolvency Service chief investigator Darren Bailey said Hussain had deliberately ignored the rules of the scheme. He said, "Matloob Hussain clearly thought he was above the law and blatantly disregarded the rules of a loan scheme designed to help struggling businesses.

"By applying for multiple loans and continuing to act while disqualified, he caused significant loss to the public purse and undermined the insolvency system."

The Insolvency Service confirmed action is being taken to recover the money through proceeds of crime legislation. Around 27000 pounds has already been repaid.