Accountant falsely claimed £100k in Covid support loans

A Hertfordshire accountant who took out three bounce back loans went bust owing HMRC over £60,000

Dion Perry Mailich, 51, an accountant from Borehamwood, was a director of Renovare Financial Service Ltd, a company which helped ex-offenders get back on their feet after getting out of prison.

Mailich has been disqualified for 12 years and must pay £75,000 compensation after he applied for three bounce back loans during the pandemic resulting in a false claim for an extra £100,000 in Covid support loans, five times the amount his company was entitled to under the scheme.

The company went into liquidation in December 2022 and a report from the liquidator triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service into Mailich’s conduct.

The investigation found that in May 2020, Mailich had applied for a £25,000 bounce back loan on behalf of the business. The amount was the maximum Renovare was eligible to receive, based on its previous year’s turnover.

However, investigators discovered that Mailich applied for a second bounce back loan of £50,000 for the business less than two weeks after he had received the first, and then made a third £50,000 loan application in June 2020.

In total, Renovare Financial Services Ltd received five times what it was entitled to under the scheme.

As well as unpaid loans to various banks, amounting to £124,596 when the business went bust, the liquidator’s report showed that the company owed HMRC over £60,000, made up of £13,450 in unpaid national insurance contributions (NICs) and PAYE of £21,051, and a further £28,038 in unpaid taxes.

In total, the insolvency practitioner reported that Renovare had 26 unsecured creditors with estimated claims of £631,437 when it went into liquidation and does not expect adequate funds to repay any of the creditors.

Rob Clarke, chief investigator of Insolvent Investigations North at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘The rules were very clear but Dion Mailich ignored them and took an extra £100,000 from taxpayers that his business was clearly not entitled to.

‘We will not tolerate such abuse of public money. Mailich now has a lengthy ban and has undertaken to pay tens of thousands of pounds in compensation.

‘This outcome should be a warning to others that we will be seek action against cases of abuse by company directors.’

On 15 March 2024, Mailich gave the Insolvency Service an undertaking to pay the agreed compensation.

His disqualification prevents him from becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

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