A property investor who falsely claimed a �45,000 Bounce Back Loan before dissolving his firm has been banned by the Insolvency Service.

Simon Gorgin, 63, from Kings Langley, was sole director of P3 Estates Ltd until it was dissolved in December 2021.

In May 2020, he stated on the loan application that the firm's turnover in 2019 had been �180,000.

However, investigators discovered that P3 Estate Ltd had never traded, and had not been trading at the time of the loan application and so wasn't entitled to receive any money.

They also found that three days after the loan arrived in the company's account, Gorgin further breached the rules of the scheme by transferring the full �45,000 to his own bank account.

Strike off

Gorgin, who has other business interests in the creative sector, also failed to notify the bank from which he had borrowed the money that he had applied to strike off the company in April 2021.

By July of the same year P3 Estates still owed the full amount of the loan, prompting an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

He has now been banned for 12 years, which prevents him from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court. A compensation order is being recommended to recover the money.

Abused

Peter Smith, deputy head of dissolved company investigations, says Gorgin abused the scheme and took taxpayers' money at a time when many businesses were in genuine need.

'His lengthy ban should stand as a warning that we will take action against directors who abuse government support schemes,'� he adds.