Company Wound Up for Dodgy Covid Loan Claims
Keysholders Ltd was officially wound up by the High Court on 21 June 2022. The Official Receiver stepped in as Liquidator after uncovering dodgy dealings.
Fake Trading to Nab £40,000 Bounce Back Loan
The company claimed to be in training, research, and development but hadn’t traded since March 2019 — a full year before the pandemic hit.
Shockingly, in May 2020, Keysholders bagged a £40,000 Bounce Back Loan reserved only for firms hit by Covid. They lied about their turnover, claiming £200,000 for 2019 when it was actually just £65,000.
Inflated Claims Fail to Secure Bigger Loan
Director Olayinka Adediran also applied for a £250,000 Business Interruption Loan in August 2020. This was denied after she inflated turnover figures again — now claiming £550,000.
Job Retention Scheme Grants Under Scrutiny
Between November 2020 and onwards, Keysholders scored £20,000 through the Job Retention Scheme. But records showed the staff member paid was hired after the dates Keysholders claimed JRS support for.
“Our investigation found this company could demonstrate no evidence of legitimate trading since at least March 2019, yet has been claiming taxpayers’ money through Covid-19 financial support schemes that it was not entitled to,” said Edna Okhiria, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service. “We will always seek to have companies wound-up in such cases, in the public interest.”
The High Court agreed, ruling shutting down Keysholders was in the public interest. The company was deemed to have abused multiple Covid relief schemes without commercial probity.
