- Anna Dalecka wildly overstated her takings by £216,000 to falsely claim maximum Covid loan
- she transferred most of the money to personal accounts in the UK and Poland instead of using it for the economic benefit of her business
- Dalecka then declared herself bankrupt
A cleaner based in North London who falsely claimed a £50,000 Covid loan before making herself bankrupt has been given a suspended prison sentence.
Anna Emilia Dalecka, 48, of Devonshire Road, Enfield, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, when she appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 3 May 2024.
She was also given a 3-month curfew and must complete 300 hours of unpaid work.
Julie Barnes, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
Anna Dalecka took advantage of a government scheme designed to keep businesses afloat during one of the toughest times for UK businesses.
She abused that support by wildly overstating her turnover to claim more money than her business was entitled to.
Her sentence shows that the Insolvency Service will bring those who abuse public money to justice.
Dalecka claimed to be a self-employed bookkeeper, trading from her Enfield home, when she applied for a Bounce Back Loan for her business in August 2020.
Under the rules of the scheme, businesses could apply for loans of up to £50,000, depending on their 2019 turnover. Dalecka claimed on the application that her turnover was £220,000.
But in March 2021 she petitioned for her own bankruptcy, which led to an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
Investigators discovered that in 2019 Dalecka was actually working as a self-employed cleaner and her turnover was around £4,000, meaning she had overstated the amount by approximately £216,000 to claim the maximum loan.
The investigation found that Dalecka had exhausted the loan by December 2020 - less than four months after it had arrived in her company bank account.
She had paid around £20,000 of the money into her personal bank account and transferred another £10,000 to accounts in Poland.
Money was also paid to third parties in London, rather than being used to support her business, as required by the rules of the loan scheme.
