Indian restaurant owner in UK banned for exploiting Covid loan scheme

The owner of an Indian restaurant in England has been sentenced to prison and banned as a company director for two years for misusing funds from the British government’s Covid Bounce Back Loan.

Zaman Shaa’s Shaa Ventures Limited runs Chutneys Indian takeaway food restaurant in Salisbury, southern England.

The 53-year-old broke British company law before securing a loan by applying to dissolve his business, even though it had been trading in the previous three months.

Last month at Winchester Crown Court, Shaa was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison, which has been suspended for 18 months under strict conditions and was disqualified as a company director for two years.

“Zaman Shaa exploited a scheme intended to help businesses during a national emergency for his gain,” said Pete Fulham, Chief Investigator at the UK’s Insolvency Service.

“His actions cannot simply be dismissed as something he did in the spur of the moment. They required a degree of planning and sophistication over several weeks to execute. The sentence and disqualification order for Shaa demonstrate we will not hesitate to take action against directors who have abused Covid financial support in such a manner,” he said.