Liverpool fraudsters who pocketed £30k Covid loan sentenced

The pair still owed about £29,000 at the time of their sentencing

Two men who "cheated the taxpayer" by abusing a £30,000 Covid support loan for personal gain have been sentenced.

Matthew Wright, 54, and Karl Mathers, 50, took out the loan for their rent collection company in Liverpool before moving the funds to personal accounts.

Investigators said they then dissolved their business, abusing the so-called Bounce Back loan scheme designed to help firms through the pandemic.

The pair were handed suspended sentences at Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard they were directors of Northgate Property Associates and had applied for the loan from a local bank in 2020.

The government scheme offered loans of between £2,000 and £50,000.

'Personal gain'

Within six days of receiving the money the men applied to have Northgate struck off without informing the bank they planned to shut the business.

Government agents are continuing to work to recover the funds, with the pair still owing about £29,000 at the time of their sentencing earlier in December.

Julie Barnes, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said they had "cheated the taxpayer for personal gain".

Wright, from Liverpool, was given a 14-month sentence, suspended for 18 months for fraud, and for failing to tell the bank that lent the company the money that it would be dissolved.

Mathers, 50, received a 10-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, for failing to inform the bank that they had applied to dissolve the business.

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