The government acted too slowly to stop fraudsters exploiting its Bounce Back Loan scheme, a report says.
The government failed to put adequate measures in place to prevent fraudsters stealing billions through its Bounce Back Loan scheme to businesses, the National Audit Office has said.
As of 30 September, figures from the state-owned British Business Bank, which supervises the scheme, showed £2bn worth of loans had been repaid and £1.3bn had been defaulted on. The bank said about 7% of all loans were at least one month in arrears. Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, said the figures made for "sobering reading".
Measures to identify duplicate applications were introduced in June 2020, and checks on director changes were introduced in July 2020. A statement from the Department for Business said it was "continuing to crack down on Covid-19 fraud and will not tolerate those that seek to defraud the British taxpayer".
Working with an undercover investigator we learned that criminal gangs were exploiting the system. They stole the identities of real people, set up fake companies and claimed the maximum £50,000.
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