Construction and coaching bosses banned for COVID-19 loan abuse

Lavinia-Larisa Mociar, 31, claimed £50,000 to support the Harrow-based construction business of which she was a director. However, the business had ceased trading when the application was made.

And Shafiqur Rahman, 26, and chair of a local charity, had exaggerated the turnover of his Manchester-based sports coaching business to claim £25,000.

But the amount received by Aspire Sports Coaching & Partners Ltd was more than 11 times the money to which the business was entitled and Mr Rahman spent £20,000 of it without being able to prove it had been used to support the company.

Under the rules of the scheme, businesses applying for the loan had to be actively trading by March 2020. Companies could apply for loans of up to 25 per cent of their 2019 turnover, to a maximum of £50,000, to help keep their business afloat during the pandemic.

Ms Mociar, originally from Romania, was the sole director of L&M Construct Ltd until the company went into liquidation in November 2021.

However, L&M Construct Ltd had stopped trading in October 2019, a year before Ms Mociar applied for the Bounce Back Loan, which was meant to help support businesses through the pandemic.

Investigators discovered that not only had L&M Construct Ltd not been trading in 2020, but that Ms Mociar had also exaggerated the company’s turnover to claim the maximum £50,000. There had been less than £50 in the company’s bank account when the loan was deposited in October 2020.

Ms Mociar then withdrew more than £50,000 from the company account before the end of 2020, a further abuse of the scheme as the money was not being used for the economic benefit of the business.

The company went into liquidation owing around £50,000, including the full amount of the loan.

Manchester-based Mr Rahman was director of Aspire Sports Coaching & Partners Ltd, which provided sport programmes and activities to primary schools and holiday clubs across Greater Manchester.

Mr Rahman was also the founder and chair of Oldham Inspiring Youth, a charity that aimed to engage children through sports and education and which had crowdfunded a yellow school bus to be used as a community educational space in Oldham.

He applied for a Bounce Back Loan of £25,000 in May 2020 to support Aspire Sports Coaching through the pandemic lockdowns, when most children were not in school. The business folded in May 2021, which triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Investigators found that, based on the company’s actual turnover, Aspire Sports Coaching & Partners should only have been eligible for a Bounce Back Loan of £2,000, and the company had received £23,000 to which it hadn’t been entitled.

Investigators also discovered that Mr Rahman had paid £20,000 out of the company and had given a false invoice for the amount to liquidators to try to account for the unexplained payment. The business closed with debts of £25,000, the full amount of the loan money.

The Secretary of State accepted disqualification undertakings from both errant bosses and they were each given bans of 11 years. Mr Rahman’s ban began on 11 October this year and Ms Mociar’s started on 8 November 2022.

The disqualifications prevent the two former directors from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation, or management of a company, without the permission of the court.