London hotelier sentenced for exploiting Covid support scheme nine times to fraudulently claim £450,000

He illegally obtained the funds for five separate companies

A London hotelier who blamed the banks for not chasing him over repayments has been sentenced after securing £450,000 in Covid loans at the height of the pandemic.

Richard Courtenay’s nine Bounce Back Loan applications in May and June 2020 involved fraudulent declarations about the turnover of five companies and applying for multiple loans when businesses were only allowed one.

The 62-year-old failed to use the funds for business purposes and attempted to conceal them by swiftly moving them into his personal accounts or the bank accounts of his other companies.

Courtenay, of Larpent Avenue, London, pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud and one count of money laundering in July this year.

He was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday 3 September. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and attend 10 days of rehabilitation activity.

Courtenay has repaid the £450,000 he fraudulently obtained in full, but only after Insolvency Service investigations into his criminal conduct began.

David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

Richard Courtenay is an experienced businessman. It is therefore surprising that he claims he did not read his loan applications carefully or check them for accuracy.