A fraudster who pretended he worked for high street baker Greggs to swindle more than £710,000 in Covid grants has been jailed for four years.
Aftab Baig, 47, of Glasgow, made fraudulent claims to Leeds City Council against 32 properties and arranged for the money to go into his business account.
The money came from the Small Business Grant Fund, one of several schemes set up by the government to help small businesses with rates relief during the pandemic.
In May 2020, Baig contacted Leeds Council pretending to be a group property manager at Greggs Head Office.
He asked for business rates numbers for Leeds branches and claimed he could not access them due to lockdown.
Baig, who had no links to Greggs and was not employed by them, used the details to apply for rates relief to the tune of £710,000.
This was paid into a bank account associated with his catering business.
In May 2020, the council realised the claims were fraudulent and took action which resulted in the account being frozen.
Aftab Baig, 47, conned Leeds City Council out of £710k in Covid business grants
Aftab Baig arriving at Leeds Crown Court today where he was jailed for four years
While most of the money was later returned to the council more than £90,000 was left outstanding.
The National Investigation Service (NATIS) launched a probe and Baig was arrested in Glasgow by Police Scotland in July 2020.
Officers raided his home and found £16,000 in cash as well as forged remittance slips which detectives believed he was planning to use to persuade the bank to return the frozen money.
Baig, of Paisley Road, Glasgow, was found guilty of three counts of fraud on February 12 at Leeds Crown Court.
Prosecutors have today welcomed his prison sentence after he was jailed.
Kelly Ward from the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘Baig took advantage of the difficult circumstances of the pandemic in 2020 to defraud the council out of taxpayers money.
‘Those who cheat the public purse are stealing funds which should rightly go towards services and the community, or in this case towards supporting small businesses through an extremely challenging time.
‘We will not hesitate to work together with investigators such as NATIS to bring offenders like Baig to justice.
‘We will also be starting proceedings to recover any assets resulting from this criminality.’
