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A Cardiff-based businesswoman, Rupali Wagh, 51, has been sentenced to over two years in prison for fraudulently obtaining around £200,000 through Covid loan schemes intended to support businesses impacted by the pandemic. The offenses took place between May and September 2020, during which she deliberately exaggerated her businesses’ turnover figures to secure multiple loans. The courts heard that Wagh used these funds mainly for personal financial gain, including investments in stocks and shares and paying off her credit card debts.
Wagh secured a total of £216,250 through five Bounce Back Loans and two additional loans, despite the scheme’s regulation allowing only one loan per business. Her first dishonest claim involved requesting a £16,250 Bounce Back loan for One2Four Accounting Ltd, a bookkeeping service she founded in mid-2018. While she stated the business had a turnover of £65,000 and that the money would solely support the company, in truth, the firm had a turnover of just £39,000 for the previous year. Prosecutor Jenny Yeo noted that after receiving the loan, Wagh transferred the funds into her personal account and used them largely to settle debts and purchase stocks.
The fraud extended to her recruitment company, Talensetu UK Ltd, where she sought £50,000 in June 2020, falsely claiming the business was active with a turnover of £218,000, even though accounts filed showed it had been dormant. Wagh immediately diverted these funds to her personal account, spending them on personal finance matters and stocks, and also transferred a significant sum to an account in India. She later made a second £50,000 loan application for Talensetu from a different bank in July 2020, again inflating turnover figures and wrongly asserting that this was the company’s only loan application.
Further fraudulent applications followed, including a request for £50,000 for White Coconut Ltd—an Indian street food outlet—where she overstated turnover based on conflicting figures supplied on bank forms. Similarly, she falsely claimed the loan was the company’s only Bounce Back Loan despite having already received £18,000 from another lender. Her last fraudulent loan application, in September 2020, was for £50,000 for Indian Canteen Ltd, also a street food business incorporated earlier that year. She inflated turnover figures and transferred part of these funds to White Coconut Ltd. During interviews, Wagh admitted using the loans mainly to clear personal debts, believing that by doing so, she was indirectly supporting her businesses. Her defense attorney argued that personal difficulties following a divorce and a desire to safeguard her companies during the pandemic influenced her actions. Nevertheless, investigators condemned her conduct as a deliberate exploitation of a government scheme meant to aid legitimate businesses
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