The owner of a Bedfordshire dry lining specialist has been banned as a company director for 13 years for abusing the Covid Bounce Back Loan system.
Nick Addison, who was sole director of Addison’s Quality Ltd, overstated his company’s turnover to secure a loan in 2020, and used most of the funds for his own personal use.
Addison, of Leighton Buzzard, was handed the disqualification order at a hearing of the High Court in London this week and was also ordered to pay costs of £5,158.
He submitted an application for a Bounce Back Loan in May 2020, falsely claiming that the turnover of his business in 2019 was £250,000.
Businesses were entitled to apply for a single loan with a value of up to a quarter of their turnover from 2019, with a maximum limit of £50,000.
Addison’s Quality’s turnover in 2019 was not even a quarter of the £250,000 claimed in the application.
Sales income into the company’s bank account for that year was just under £62,000, meaning it was eligible for a loan of around £15,500.
Bounce Back Loan funds of £50,000 were paid into Addison’s Quality’s account in May 2020 and within just four days, Addison had started to transfer some of the money into his personal account.
Between May and September 2020, more than £48,000 was paid to Addison’s personal account.
Addison provided no evidence that the loan was used for the economic benefit of his business and did not respond to requests for further information from the Insolvency Service during the course of its investigations.
Addison’s Quality went into liquidation in March 2021.
Kevin Read, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Nick Addison provided false information to the bank to secure taxpayer-backed money while the country was in lockdown during the first few months of the pandemic.
“Addison then displayed further contempt for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme by transferring funds out of his company’s account and into his own personal bank account.
“The 13-year disqualification order reflects the serious nature of this misconduct and means Addison cannot be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company in the UK until 2037.”
