BORIS Johnson has been urged to create a “bounce back fraud squad” to recover billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money “stolen” from a government scheme.
Douglas Chapman issued the challenge to Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday.
It comes after a report found that the UK Government only put in some basic anti-fraud checks on the small Covid loans it was providing to businesses once more than £28 billion had already been paid out.
Checks to ensure that a company was not applying for more than one bounce back loan were not put in place until June 2020, a month after the scheme was launched, the National Audit Office said.
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By then, 61% of the money that was to be lent under the scheme had already been paid out to businesses.
Other counter-fraud activities did not begin until September 2020 as the Government focused on getting out the loans to support struggling companies.
During an exchange at Westminster on Wednesday at PMQs, SNP MP for Dunfermline and West Fife said: “The Prime Minister will be aware of the recent National Audit Office report on bounce back boans and the eye-watering levels of fraud and criminality uncovered.
“In the interests of the taxpayer, will the Prime Minister initiate a Great British bounce back fraud squad to recover this public money and prosecute where appropriate – even if the crime was committed more than one year ago?”
Bounce back loans were introduced in May 2020 as the largest of three Covid-19 related business support loan schemes to enable SMEs to access finance quickly during the pandemic, offering loans of up to £50,000.
The question comes just days after Justice Secretary Dominic Raab claimed police “don’t normally… investigate things that have taken place a year ago” when asked about a Christmas party in Downing Street during lockdown.
In response, the Prime Minister said: “We will take action against anybody who has defrauded any of the Covid loans, bounce back loans, or otherwise.”
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Following the PMQs session, Chapman said: “The Prime Minister has obviously not read the National Audit Office report as one of the main criticisms regarding the UK Government’s business bounce back scheme is that HMRC are not doing enough to recover loans from organised crime syndicates or through fraudulent loan applications.
“At a time when people are losing out on pensions, have been furloughed during the past year, have lost earnings or their job, for the UK Government not to put resources in to recover an estimated £5bn in loans is diabolical.
“Citizens are already up in arms about Downing Street parties, many more will be equally angered that billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been loaned to fraudsters with little effort being made to recover it.”
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