Bradford crook forced to cough up £123,000 over dodgy Covid loans
£100k Scam Using Wife’s Name and Fake Docs
Slick fraudster Shohid Ahmed, 41, from Bradford, pocketed nearly £100,000 from Covid Bounce Back Loans using a web of lies and his wife’s good credit. Claiming to run Red Square Restaurants Ltd – aka Ruby’s Lounge in Mirfield – Ahmed applied for three loans totalling £150,000 in 2020. He slipped his wife’s name into the paperwork to boost approval chances. Two loans got the green light, handing him £100,000 cold cash.
But here’s the kicker – he’s only repaid a paltry £15,000 in six years.
Fake Directors and Phoney Invoices
- Ahmed filed bogus paperwork naming an unrelated woman as company director – she just rented a property from his dad and knew nothing about it.
- He downplayed his own role as a £12,000-a-year waiter, while claiming she ran the restaurant and its accounts.
- To cover his tracks, Ahmed forged an invoice claiming £15,000 spent with a Stockton-on-Tees interior design firm. Investigators busted it – the address was a 37-year-old café with no connection to any design firm.
Contradictions, Convictions and Jail Time
Ahmed’s lies didn’t stop there. In April 2020, he applied to have the company struck off, saying it hadn’t traded for three months – just weeks before claiming the restaurant was still open for loan applications.
The fraudster pleaded guilty to multiple offences under the Fraud Act, Companies Act, and Insolvency Act. Bradford Crown Court handed down a two-year prison sentence last May. He’s also banned as a company director for 11 years.
Confiscation Order Hits Hard
On 12 March, Bradford Crown Court ordered Ahmed to pay back £123,000 plus £6,000 in costs – with just three months to cough up. Fail to pay, and he faces an extra 15 months behind bars – and the debt doesn’t disappear.
“Those who steal from the public purse should be in no doubt that we will come for the fraudulently-obtained money,” warned Alexander Grierson, Head of Asset Recovery at the Insolvency Service. “A prison sentence is not the end of the matter.”
The old Ruby’s Lounge site in Mirfield now hosts a new restaurant with no links to Ahmed’s dodgy dealings.
