Birmingham accountant ordered to repay £307,000 after Covid fraud

Zeeshan Ashraf, a 46-year-old accountant from Birmingham, has been ordered by Birmingham Crown Court to pay a confiscation order of £307,690. This follows his imprisonment for three years and eight months after admitting to multiple counts of fraud involving pandemic-era support schemes.

Between April 2020 and April 2021, Ashraf used his company, A-Z Certified Accountants Limited, to fraudulently obtain £268,102. His crimes included securing three separate £50,000 Bounce Back Loans by falsely claiming high business turnovers, despite his company only generating £8,000. He reportedly used the funds for property investments, personal loan repayments, and lifestyle expenses.

Additionally, Ashraf defrauded the Covid Job Retention Scheme of £91,174 through unauthorized applications and stole £26,928 from the Eat Out to Help Out scheme by submitting claims for non-existent or ineligible hospitality businesses. The confiscation order includes the stolen funds plus an uplift to account for inflation since 2020. Ashraf has three months to pay the amount or face an additional two-and-a-half years in prison.