A Devon taxi driver who overstated his annual turnover by more than £350,000 to fraudulently obtain two government-backed Covid loans has been jailed.

Murat Dogantekin, 50, of Mulligan Drive, Exeter, secured two bounce back loans worth a total of £100,000 in 2020, despite being eligible for just over £4,000 under the scheme.

Instead of using the funds for his business, he transferred them to a close family member and an offshore bank account.

Dogantekin was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison after appearing at Exeter Crown Court on February 27.

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) was introduced by the government to support small and medium-sized businesses during the Covid pandemic.

Under the scheme, eligible businesses could borrow up to 25 per cent of their annual turnover, with a maximum amount of £50,000.

Businesses were also only permitted to apply for one loan.

Dogantekin however submitted two separate loan applications in May and June 2020, claiming to run two self-employed taxi businesses.

In his applications, he declared turnovers of £200,000 and £205,000 respectively, despite reporting earnings of only £16,500 for the tax year ending in April 2020.

Investigators later discovered that his second business, operating under the name ‘Ola Taxis’, was actually named after one of his clients and did not exist as a separate entity.

Had Dogantekin been truthful about his earnings, he would have only been eligible for a single loan of £4,125. Instead, he fraudulently secured an additional £95,875 in government support.

Within days of receiving the first £50,000 loan, Dogantekin transferred £49,500 to another bank account, marking the transaction as a ‘shop purchase’.

The following day, £48,000 was moved to an offshore bank account.

The second £50,000 loan remained in his business account for more than a month before he transferred the funds to a family member and his own personal account over a six-day period. Dogantekin did not make any repayments before being declared bankrupt in November 2021.

Following his bankruptcy, Dogantekin was quizzed by the Insolvency Service’s Official Receiver in November 2021, where he provided limited documentation.

However, he ignored 11 further attempts to contact him and failed to attend an interview under caution.

Mark Stephens, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, condemned Dogantekin’s actions.

He said: “Bounce Back Loans were created to support small and medium-sized businesses through the pandemic. They were not designed to be accessed by fraudsters and used as additional personal income at the expense of taxpayers.

“Murat Dogantekin completely disregarded almost all the rules of the scheme. He fraudulently obtained two loans when businesses were only entitled to a single loan and failed to use the money for the benefit of his business.

“His deliberate misuse of public funds will not be tolerated, and we will continue to take action against those who stole from the taxpayer during a national emergency.”

The Insolvency Service is now seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

According to government figures, businesses have drawn a total of £46.5bn in bounce back loans, of which £24.3bn has been fully repaid by borrowers.

However, £1.37bn of the loans are in arrears, and about £380m in loans have defaulted.