The Official Receiver, as trustee of the bankruptcy estates, must act in accordance with their statutory duties and distribute realised assets for the benefit of creditors. However, elements of the compensation relating to financial losses, for example those due to loss of earnings, are an asset under insolvency law of the bankruptcy and legally must be realised for the benefit of creditors. Under this scheme, compensation awarded for personal losses, for example, damage to reputation or distress, does not form part of the bankruptcy estate and will be paid by the Post Office to former postmasters. The latest update on the relevant Schemes are as follows: Historical Shortfall Scheme You can find information about eligible late applications on the Scheme website. The Post Office is now accepting eligible late applications from any post masters who believe they experienced shortfalls related to the Horizon system. The Insolvency Service and Official Receiver are continuing to work with the Post Office and the Department for Business and Trade on the various compensation schemes. Our team of experts continue to work round-the-clock to bring these criminals to justice.” Update on compensation for postmasters subject to bankruptcy orders The purpose of the Bounce Back Loan scheme was to support businesses during the pandemic, but it is clear a minority of company directors chose to maliciously abuse the scheme and defraud the taxpayer. “These fraudsters are just the latest to find out that we will not hesitate to take firm action where we uncover such abuse, and this can ultimately result in a jail sentence. In addition to its civil enforcement action, the Insolvency Service also brought criminal prosecutions against six directors in 2022-23 for COVID-19 related misconduct.ĭave Magrath, Director of Investigation and Enforcement at the Insolvency Service, said: The company was wound-up in the public interest on the petition of the Secretary of State and the director was banned for a period of 10 years The director of Fortress Restructuring Ltd who secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan despite the company not trading. The company went into liquidation owing the full amount for both loans and the director was banned for 7 years. The director of Safi Care Ltd which supplied staff for care homes who secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan and a £100,000 Covid Business Interruption loan. She sentenced to 26 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months. The director of Conwy Valley Lodge Ltd, which ran a hotel close to Snowdonia in Wales, who secured a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan, immediately before she applied to dissolve the company. He was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and 300 hours of unpaid work. director who secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan and then applied to dissolve his company two weeks later. The director of Digital Business Box Ltd. Of the total 932 director disqualifications obtained by the Insolvency Service in 2022-23 – 459 were cases involving COVID-19 financial support scheme abuse. The average length of bans handed out to directors in the last year was seven years four months, up from five years ten months in 2021-22. In 2022-2023, we used our civil and criminal enforcement powers to disqualify over 450 directors who abused the COVID-19 support scheme, as part of our ongoing work to track down pandemic fraudsters.įigures published in April, by the Insolvency Service also show that directors guilty of COVID-19 related misconduct are being hit with longer disqualification periods and some with prison sentences. The Insolvency Service has been at the forefront of Government action to clamp down on individuals and companies who abused the financial support given to businesses during the pandemic.
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