'Greggs' fraudster jailed after claiming £710,000 from local council

A 'fake baker' fraudster has been jailed for four years after posing as a manager of 32 branches to rake in £710,000 in small business Covid grants. Aftab Baig, 47, of Glasgow - who had no link to the popular High Street bakery chain - made fraudulent small business grant claims from City Council during the Covid pandemic in May 2020.

The money came from the Small Business Grant Fund, one of several schemes set up by the government to help small businesses during the pandemic. The brazen crook argued he was paid by a third party for the use of his bank account, but was found guilty of three counts of fraud in February.

Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, the Recorder of Leeds, Guy Kearl KC, said it was "a disgraceful attempt to deprive the government of monies which were in short supply at a time of extreme public anxiety and crisis".

Judge Kearl told Baig it was clear to him that he was acting as part of a group which sought to benefit by defrauding the .

He said Baig had no previous convictions and was a family man of good character, but there must be "a deterrence element to the sentence".

He told him he would be jailed for four years and would serve half, before being released on licence. Further hearings would take place to recover money under the Proceeds of Crime Act, he said.

The court heard in May 2020 Baig contacted Leeds Council pretending to be a group property manager at Greggs Head Office.

He asked for business rates numbers for Leeds branches and claimed he could not access them due to lockdown. Baig then used the details to apply for rates relief to the tune of £710,000.

This was paid into a bank account associated with his catering business.

When the council realised the claims were fraudulent his bank account was frozen, but he had already moved £95,000 to separate accounts.

The investigation was led by the National Investigation Service (NATIS) and Baig was arrested in Glasgow in July 2020 by Police Scotland officers.

It is just one of a huge number of Covid small business grants scams that sawe criminals take advantage of the national health crisis to rake in millions of pounds, in the UK and .

In Baig's case, about £16,000 in cash was found, as well as forged remittance slips which officers believed he was planning to use to try and persuade the bank to return the frozen money.

While most of the money was later returned to the council, more than £90,000 was left outstanding.

Afterwards prosecutors welcomed his prison sentence.

Kelly Ward, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Baig took advantage of the difficult circumstances of the pandemic in 2020 to defraud the council out of taxpayers money.

"Those who cheat the public purse are stealing funds which should rightly go towards services and the community, or in this case towards supporting small businesses through an extremely challenging time.

"We will not hesitate to work together with investigators such as NATIS to bring offenders like Baig to justice. We will also be starting proceedings to recover any assets resulting from this criminality."