Glasgow man jailed for four years after £710,000 Greggs Covid scam

A Glasgow man has been jailed for four years after defrauding Leeds City Council out of more than £710,000.

Aftab Baig, 47, made fraudulent grant claims against 32 properties, which were branches of Greggs, arranging for the money to go into his business account.

The money came from the Small Business Grant Fund, one of several government schemes to help small businesses with business rates relief during the pandemic.

In May 2020, Baig contacted Leeds Council, pretending to be a group property manager at Greggs Head Office, asking for business rates numbers for Leeds branches.

He claimed he could not access the details himself due to the lockdown.

Baig, who had no links to Greggs and was not employed by them, used the details to apply for rates relief of £710,000, which was paid into a bank account associated with his catering business.

Baig has been jailed after stealing £710,000 by pretending to be a Greggs manager. Crown Office

In May 2020, with the council having realised the claims were fraudulent, action was taken, which resulted in the account being frozen.

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

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

At Baig’s house, £16,000 in cash was found, as well as forged remittance slips that officers believed he was planning to use to try and persuade the bank to return the frozen money.

Baig was found guilty of three counts of fraud on February 12 at Leeds Crown Court.

Kelly Ward from 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.”