Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
A man who fraudulently received a £50,000 government-backed Covid loan to help pay a £72 million court order linked to a previous fraud case has been jailed.
Gerald Smith, 69, was imprisoned for 18 months over the bounce-back loan after he spent £22,000 of it on court fees relating to a 2006 fraud case he was involved in.
The 69-year-old also spent the money on a lavish lifestyle of eating at Mayfair restaurants and buying designer clothes, Apple products and flights abroad, City of London Police said on Monday.
Bounce-back loans were issued to support UK businesses during the pandemic and applicants could request up to £50,000. They would apply to a nominated lender and the funds were guaranteed by the government.
Smith, of Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, central London, applied for £50,000 using the name Ian Dunbar, who was listed as a director of Arcana Solutions. The funds were paid out by Arcana Solutions and signed by electronic signature as Ian Dunbar.
Officers discovered Ian Dunbar and Smith were the same person and he was arrested in 2022. The force said he remained silent throughout all questions put to him.
Detective Inspector Andrea Bakewell, from the fraud operations team at City of London Police, said: “When many businesses were struggling to keep their head above water during the Covid pandemic, criminals were making use of the financial aid on offer.
“Gerald Smith demonstrated an incredible degree of manipulation, conceit and greed as he exploited the bounce-back loan scheme offered by the government.
“This level of exploitation during one of the hardest periods this country has ever faced is something we will not tolerate.”
In 2006, Smith pleaded guilty to stealing more than £34 million that belonged to a software firm called Izodia, based in Slough, Berkshire, after an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
He had acquired a stake in the company through his Jersey-based firm Orb Group and transferred more than £34 million of Izodia cash assets to Jersey, which he used for himself.
Smith was given an eight-year jail term in 2006 and a judge made a confiscation order of about £40 million in 2007. He owes more than £72 million after interest.