A Lurgan businessman who falsely claimed a government bounce back loan of £25,000 spacecraft firm when its turnover was significantly less than that has been handed an eight-year boardroom ban.
Aaron Jon McCracken (41), from Woodford Park in the town, was a director of SRM Global Ltd, which was involved in the repair and maintenance of aircraft and spacecraft and had its registered office at Commercial Mews, Main Street, Larne.
The company went into liquidation in February 2022 owing £25,100 to creditors.
A disqualification hearing brought by the Department for the Economy heard that McCracken applied for - and received - a bounce back loan of £25,000 SRM was only entitled to obtain £15,980.
He admitted he knew that the turnover of the company was significantly lower than the amount he had declared.
McCracken also admitted permitting the misapplication of company funds and acting in a manner to benefit himself rather than the company by using the bounce back loan to pay himself a significant increase in salary when the company’s turnover had decreased.
If he had not paid himself this increased salary, SRM Global would have had additional money available to repay creditors.
The bounce back loan ultimately did not provide any economic benefit to SRM Global and therefore contravened the conditions attached to loan.
An eight-year disqualification was also handed down to Ahmed Jobear Nasir (50) of Ethel Street in Belfast in respect of his conduct as director of NJA Investments in Lisburn, which went into liquidation in June 2021 owing £169,241.
He was said to have breached his fiduciary duty to the company by using a £50,000 bounce back loan for his own personal benefit.
He was also said to have transferred £45,800 into his personal bank account, while the remaining £4,200 paid to him has never been explained.
Introduced by the then-Tory government soon after the pandemic outbreak in 2020, a total of £76.98 billion was drawn down across the Bounce Back Loans Scheme (BBLS), the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).
To date, £20.5 billion has been fully repaid by borrowers across all three schemes, with thousands of companies continuing to work towards continuing their repayments on schedule.
But more than £2 billion remains in arrears, and close to another £2 billion drawn down has been flagged by lenders as suspected fraud.
