A father-daughter duo from Merseyside has been sentenced for fraudulently obtaining £65,000 in Covid Bounce Back Loans, on top of £75,000 they were legitimately granted for their car parts businesses. Catherine Deegan, 43, and Gerard Deegan, 65, secured legitimate loans of £25,000 and £50,000 for their companies, Bootle Cars & Commercials Limited and Bootle Car and Commercial Limited, in May 2020
A couple has been sentenced after defrauding a taxpayer-backed COVID-19 loan scheme, illegally claiming an additional £65,000 to which they were not entitled.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Catherine Deegan misused loan funds for personal expenses, including caravan rent. The court sentenced her to 10 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and ordered 150 hours of unpaid work.
Gerard Deegan received a 16-month suspended sentence, a 10-year disqualification as a company director, and an eight-month electronically monitored curfew from 18:00 to 06:00.
Claire Entwistle, Assistant Director of Operations at the Insolvency Service, stated, “Catherine and Gerard Deegan deliberately abused a scheme established to support small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic. Both defendants showed complete disregard for the scheme, and this behaviour will not be tolerated.”
The fraud involved multiple loan applications for their businesses. Catherine Deegan obtained a £25,000 loan for a new company, Bootle Cars & Commercials, followed by an unauthorised £15,000 loan from another bank. She then secured a legitimate £50,000 loan for Bootle Car and Commercial. Gerard Deegan subsequently applied for an additional £50,000 loan for Bootle Car and Commercial, despite knowing his daughter had already received funding for the company
