Nadia Butt, from Birmingham, and Dorota Suchocka, from Barnes, South-West London are subject to 11-year and 10-year bankruptcy restriction undertakings, while Heidi Carruthers is subject to a court-imposed eight-year bankruptcy restriction order.
All three received their additional bankruptcy restrictions after the official receiver conducted separate investigations and deemed Ms Butt, Ms Suchocka, and Ms Carruthers a risk to future creditors.
Ms Butt, Ms Suchocka, and Ms Carruthers are restricted from being able to borrow more than £500 without disclosing their bankrupt status and they also cannot act as a company director without permission from the court.
Ms Butt was made bankrupt in August 2021 and the official receiver was appointed as her trustee. The official receiver discovered that Ms Butt wanted to start an online consultancy to help smaller businesses and secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan.
However, Ms Butt was ineligible to receive a Bounce Back Loan. She declared her anticipated turnover was £220,000, which was vastly exaggerated, and that the business had been trading on 1 March 2020, which was not true.
Further inquiries found that after Ms Butt received the government loan, she made various payments to family members and a friend but has been unable to prove that this benefited the business.
Ms Suchocka was a self-employed minicab driver and was made bankrupt in October 2021 before the official receiver was appointed her trustee.
The official receiver found that in October 2019, Ms Suchocka successfully applied for three loans worth £75,000.
However, each application included false details. Ms Suchocka used a fake employer and inflated her income as being four times higher than what she earned as a minicab driver. The monthly repayments for the three loans were more than Ms Suchocka’s average monthly earnings.
And Ms Carruthers was made bankrupt in February 2021 and was unemployed at the time the official receiver was appointed her trustee.
The official receiver’s inquiries uncovered that in September 2018, Ms Carruthers used a third party’s name to secure just under £34,000 to buy a car on finance before selling the vehicle to someone who was unaware she didn’t own the car outright.
At the time Ms Carruthers secured the loan, she was insolvent and couldn’t make the payments as she had three unpaid County Court judgements and her only income was through benefits.
Ms Carruthers refused to co-operate with the official receiver and this resulted in the court imposing her eight-year bankruptcy restrictions order on 4 August 2022 in the County Court at Birmingham before District Judge Rich.
Official receiver, David Chapman, said when applying for loans or any type of credit, the onus is on the applicant to provide correct information so that the lender can make an accurate assessment before making any payments.
