Florin-Petrica Bodale has been sentenced to 13-months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, following a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Bodale operated as a building contractor offering plumbing, heating and air-conditioning installation and was based in Harrow, north London.
In November 2020, the 34-year-old successfully applied to a bank for a Covid Bounce Back loan of £50,000. An Insolvency Service investigation found that he had falsely claimed the company’s turnover was £240,000 to receive the maximum loan available. But in reality, the turnover of the company was around £22,000 – meaning he was only entitled to £5,500.
Bodale was sentenced to 13-months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, for one count of fraud by false representation. He was also ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work.
Insolvency Service chief investigator David Snasdell said: “Florin-Petrica Bodale falsely claimed a much higher turnover for his business and the reality of this is a notable sentence on top of his earlier disqualification as a director.
“These loans were intended to help keep small businesses afloat, not to take money from the public purse that businesses were not entitled to. We will continue in our efforts to bring those who abuse this scheme to justice.”
In 2022, before the criminal investigation, Bodale signed a 10-year bankruptcy restriction undertaking which also included a 10-year director disqualification following a civil investigation by the Insolvency Service. The court noted that he had repaid some money as part of the bankruptcy process.
The Bounce Back loan scheme, introduced in 2020, was designed to help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000, at a low interest rate, guaranteed by the government. The loans were made on the condition that they were not to be used for personal purposes, but could be used, for example, to purchase a company asset such as a vehicle, if it would provide an economic benefit to the business
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