Prison for takeaway boss who took out £50k Covid loan for business he'd sold

HE 'DELIBERATELY TARGETED VULNERABLE SCHEME'

- By MARTIN NAYLOR [e-mail]

A NOTTINGHAM takeaway owner dishonestly took out a £50,000 Government Covid Bounce Back loan despite having sold the business months earlier.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how Mujeebullah Khan used the money - which was designed to prop up firms affected by 2020's lockdown - to pay back a relative who had initially helped him set up Chunky Chicken in 2016.

The married 38-year-old father, of Aspley, initially claimed he had not acted dishonesty and has now paid back all of the money. But that has not stopped him receiving an immediate jail term for his criminal activity.

Sending him to prison for 22 months, Judge Steven Coupland said: "During Covid, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme was introduced to save businesses which were badly affected by the pandemic.