London man jailed for abusing Covid-19 relief funds

A 46-year-old London man has been jailed for fraud after abusing the Covid-19 Bounce Back Loan scheme and channeling some of the proceeds into a trading venture in Ghana.

Eric Agyeman, of Mace Street, admitted to fraud and money laundering offences. He secured £130,000 through three separate loan applications in the name of DOK Logistics UK Ltd a company that never actually operated. 

The government support programme allowed only one loan per business.

The Insolvency Service uncovered that Agyeman had invented company turnover figures, inflating them to as much as £375,000 in order to access the funds. 

In an interview, he conceded that the numbers were “just something I made up.”

On Tuesday, September 9, Agyeman was sentenced at the Old Bailey to two years and two months in prison. He also received a five-year ban from serving as a company director.

Investigators said that more than £40,000 of the money was used to ship goods from the UK to a partner in Ghana. The items were sold there, with commission payments sent back and the proceeds later returned to the UK in cash by travellers.

David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, condemned the scheme: “Eric Agyeman brazenly exploited a scheme designed to help struggling companies during the pandemic for his own personal gain, using the funds for a business operation in Africa.

 Agyeman’s admission that he simply ‘made up’ turnover figures shows a complete disregard for the taxpayer-funded support that was meant to keep legitimate businesses afloat.”

The Insolvency Service stressed that, even more than five years after the pandemic began, it remains determined to pursue individuals who wrongly benefited from Covid-19 relief. 

Officials confirmed that steps are being taken to recover the stolen funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.