London retailer banned for abusing £50,000 Bounce Back Loan

A London retailer has been disqualified for 10 years for squandering £50,000 Bounce Back Loan instead of spending on his company.

Abbas Abo Kifayah, 37, of Kingsbury, northwest London, was the sole director of Al-Amir Ltd, which traded as Dijla Supermarket from premises on Forty Avenue, Wembley.

The company, however, went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation in July last year, prompting an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Investigators uncovered that Kifayah successfully secured a £50,000 bounce back loan for Al-Amir Ltd in August 2020. However, he exaggerated the company’s turnover to secure a higher value loan than Al-Amir Ltd was entitled to.

Further enquiries found that once the £50,000 loan was placed into the company’s bank account, £43,200 was transferred into Kifayah’s personal account, while just over £3,000 was transferred to a third party and £2,250 was withdrawn in cash.

Kifayah explained that £12,000 was used to pay his salary and the remainder for his backdated salary and personal use. However, the Insolvency Service said their investigators could not find any evidence that any of the money was used for the benefit of the company.

Business secretary has on 30 June accepted a 10-year disqualification undertaking from Kifayah after he did not dispute that he obtained a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan which the company was not entitled and failed to use the funds received for the economic benefit of Al-Amir Ltd.

Effective from 21 July, Kifayah is banned from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

“Bounce Back loans were available to support viable businesses through the pandemic. Abbas Kifayah, however, abused the government’s support when he inflated his company’s turnover in order to receive the maximum loan before squandering the money rather than use it to benefit his business,” Lawrence Zussman, deputy head of insolvent investigations at the Insolvency Service, said.

“10 years is a significant amount of time to be removed from the corporate arena and Abbas Kifayah’s disqualification should serve as a clear warning that we will take decisive action to protect the public and the taxpayer”.

The Insolvency Service added that Al-Amir Ltd’s liquidator is considering the bounce back loans and recovery of funds.