How the UK government lost 4.9bn to Covid loan Fraud
In the final days of April 2020, bankers and Treasury officials were huddled over laptops in makeshift home offices across the country, negotiating the terms of what is fast becoming the most controversial of the government’s pandemic rescue schemes.
The country was in its sixth week of national lockdown after the Covid outbreak, the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s ambitious plan for a more accessible, 100% government-backed small business loan scheme.
Borrowers had to confirm they were affected by Covid and based in the UK, that they were in business as of 1 March 2020 and not insolvent as of 1 December 2019. But applicants were left to self-certify that they met these criteria.
