A restaurant owner jailed for illegally obtaining a Covid Bounce Back Loan has been ordered to pay the funds back in full with interest.
Ilhan Kekec, who ran Derwish Kebab Restaurant inside the food court of the East Shopping Centre on Green Street in Forest Gate, London, overstated his company’s turnover to secure a £30,000 loan in May 2020.
He falsely claimed the turnover of his business was £125,000.
His venture only traded for three weeks before the Covid lockdown, and he applied to dissolve his company in June 2020, claiming it was no longer economically viable for him to run the restaurant.
However, he failed to inform his creditors and instead withdrew the Bounce Back Loan money in cash. He later admitted to Insolvency Service investigators that he spent the funds on clearing personal debts.
The 36-year-old was jailed for two-and-a-half years in March 2024 following a trial at Isleworth Crown Court.
At a confiscation hearing at the same court on Friday 20th December 2024, IIhan was ordered to repay a total of £37,426 within three months or face an additional 18 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay £15,900 in costs.
IIhan will still have to repay the loan should his prison sentence be extended.
Alexander Grierson, head of asset recovery at the Insolvency Service, said: “Ilhan Kekec not only supplied false information to fraudulently acquire £30,000 in taxpayer funds at the start of the pandemic but then proceeded to use the loan to pay off personal debts.
“This was not how the loans were supposed to be used and Kekec himself declared in his application that he would use the money for the economic benefit of his business.”
