A fraudster businessman who conned his way to £25,000 in Covid 'bounce back' support has been sentenced.

Rajesh Dhirajlal Vaghela, 46, from Stanmore, received the loan by abusing the Bounce Back Loan scheme set up in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to support struggling businesses at the time.

His consulting firm RKV Consultancy Ltd, registered in Honeypot Lane, had been trading since March 2019.

Vaghela applied for the Covid support loan in May 2020 and within a week of receiving the money he filed paperwork with Companies House to have the business dissolved.

The money was then transferred to his personal bank accounts.

After the company dissolved in October that year, the Insolvency Service and cross-government counter-fraud systems identified its closure as probable Bounce Back Loan fraud.

Investigators found that Vaghela breached the law by not informing his bank of his application to dissolve the company.

He pleaded guilty to fraud under the Companies Act 2006 and Fraud Act 2006 at Willesden Magistrates Court in February 2023.

Vaghela was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on April 13 to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

The fraudster was also ordered to pay £2,150 in court costs. He had repaid the loan in full before being sentenced.

Peter Fulham, chief investigator of the Insolvency Service’s criminal investigation team, said: “Directors who abused the Covid-19 financial support schemes, which were provided by the government to support genuine businesses in need of help during the pandemic, have exploited taxpayers.

“This sentence reflects the thoroughly dishonest conduct of Rajesh Vaghela and should serve as a warning to others who engaged in this behaviour that they are at risk of criminal prosecutions and could potentially end up in prison.”

This case follows after six other criminal prosecutions of company directors for Covid loan abuse in the last year.