A former town councillor has been jailed after he tried to steal more than £430,000 from the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
Mohammed Ikram, 36, used his business Khan’s Café and Chai Point, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, to set up seven fake food outlets.
The Keighley Town Council member then made 19 claims, worth a total of £434,073, between August 7 and September 6 2020.
He received £189,208 in payments, but further claims totalling £244,865 were rejected by HMRC and an investigation was launched.
Ikram admitted cheating the public revenue, fraud by false representation and associated money laundering at Bradford Crown Court, on June 13 last year, and resigned from the council.
He was jailed for two and half years on Friday, after the court heard about his crimes which took place between August 7 and September 6, 2020.
Fraud investigation service investigator Simon York said: ‘This was a blatant fraud by somebody who held a position of trust and responsibility.
‘These schemes were designed to support individuals and businesses during a terribly difficult period.
‘Instead, Mohammed Ikram stole money which should have been paying for vital public services and helping those who needed it most.
‘This is the first conviction of Covid scheme fraud by HMRC, but we have arrested 70 people and have a number of cases working their way through the criminal justice system.
‘So far, we have prevented the payment of, or recovered more than £1.2 billion, with compliance activity still ongoing.’
The Eat Out to Help Out scheme was introduced to support the hospitality sector throughout August 2020.
It enabled restaurants, cafés, pubs and other food outlets to offer a discount to customers and obtain a reimbursement from HMRC for the same amount.
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