Simon Paul Inglis King, 65, from Plymouth, has been disqualified as a company director for 10 years after an investigation found he had claimed two Bounce Back Loans for his business totalling £80,000 — an amount of £30,000 more than the maximum allowed by the scheme.
His ban comes on top of an existing five-year bankruptcy restriction also for Bounce Back Loan abuse.
Mr King was the director of Blackfriars Contracts Ltd, which was incorporated in 2012 and ran as a printer in Plymouth until the company went into liquidation in December 2020. The business had been part of a long-running family printing operation in Plymouth referred to as a “hidden treasure” in the city’s business world.
At the point of liquidation, the company had debts of more than £230,000. Mr King later had a bankruptcy order made against him personally in July 2021, owing more than £100,000 and leading to bankruptcy restrictions of five years when it was found that he had abused another Bounce Back Loan.
In that instance, he had exaggerated his income as a sole trader in another business, Blackfriars Contracts Division, to claim a £50,000 loan to which he hadn’t been entitled.
Mr King’s repeat abuse of the scheme came to light through an audit of Blackfriars Contracts Ltd, which uncovered records of the separate Bounce Back Loans and triggered an investigation into his conduct as the firm’s director.
Insolvency Service investigators discovered that Mr King had applied for a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan for Blackfriars Contracts Ltd, and once the company had received it, he applied again for another loan for the business — this time of £30,000 — which had been paid into a different bank account belonging to the company.
Under the rules of the Bounce Back Loan scheme, which was set up to support companies through the pandemic, businesses could apply for loans of up to 25 per cent of their previous year’s turnover, up to a maximum of £50,000. Businesses were not allowed to apply for an additional loan unless they had originally borrowed less than the maximum amount.
The £80,000 of BBL money was outstanding when the company closed in December that year, as part of around £230,000 owed to creditors.
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Mr King after he didn’t dispute that he’d breached the conditions of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme by applying for two separate loans totalling £80,000.
His disqualification is effective from 7 November 2022 and lasts for 10 years.
The disqualification undertaking prevents Mr King from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation, or management of a company, without the permission of the court.
