Pizza boss jailed over £150,000 Covid loans fraud

A pizza shop boss who fraudulently obtained three Covid Bounce Back Loans, totalling £150,000, and spent a proportion of the funds on gambling and children's toys has been jailed for two years.

Matthew Temple - known as Mehdi Ghaneh-Keisami when the offences were committed in 2020 - secured three government-backed loans with a little more than a month, the Insolvency Service said.

The 44-year-old, of Bank Court, North Shields, declared he would use the money to support Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited, which traded as Pizza Cottage on East Parade in Whitley Bay.

He was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday, having pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud at an earlier hearing.

The loan scheme provided support for small and medium-sized firms during the pandemic, but they were only allowed to apply for one payment of up to a maximum of £50,000.

However, the Insolvency Service established that £131,419 of the £150,000 was not spent wholly for business purposes.

That included £11,090 spent across 46 gambling transactions from one of Pizza Cottage's business accounts over less than two weeks in July 2024.

It was also discovered £264 had been spent on children's toys and play equipment on 7 May, the day after the first loan was paid into the company's account.

The Insolvency Service's chief investigator, David Snasdell, described the takeaway chief as having "exploited" the taxpayer-backed offer.

Temple secured the first £50,000 loan in May 2020, shortly after the scheme launched, the court heard.

Three days later he applied for another £50,000 for the same Whitley Bay pizza business, falsely declaring it was the company's only application.

This was despite businesses being entitled to only one Bounce Back Loan.

He then received a third £50,000 payment the following month, again claiming it was the company's only Bounce Back Loan request.

Temple pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court in September.

The Insolvency Service said it was seeking to recover the funds through the Proceeds of Crime Act.

"Temple is now beginning a two-year prison sentence, but our work does not stop at securing a conviction," said David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service.

"We are also seeking to recover the money he fraudulently obtained and return funds to the public purse."

Temple had previously been disqualified as a company director for 12 years in 2024, following civil investigations by the Insolvency Service into his conduct.

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