‘Gregs’ in Swandal Man Cons Council out of £ 710K

A court has heard in a court that a city council is out of £ 710,000, pretending to be a property manager for the bakery chain Gregs.

Aftab Baig, 47, made a small trade grant claim from the Leeds City Council against 32 properties, which were branches of the firm during the Kovid epidemic in May 2020.

Baig, who had no links for Gregs and was not employed by the company, was eventually caught out and all £ 90,000 returned to the council later.

On Wednesday, in Leeds Crown Court, Beg of Paisley Road West in Glasgow was found guilty in three cases of cheating. Leeds City Council called its works “Brezen and Count”.

According to the Crown Prosiction Service (CPS), Baig contacted Leeds City Council pretending to be a group property manager in the main office of Bakery Chen.

He asked for the number of commercial rates for the firm’s leads branches, which he claimed that he could not reach himself due to the Kovid lockdown.

Baig then used the details to apply to the small business grant fund, out of which the money was paid to a bank account associated with their catering business.

The grant was one of the several government schemes that aims to help small businesses to remain during epidemic.

The same month, when the council realized that the claims were of fraud, the account was frozen and Baig was arrested in Glasgow by police Scotland officials two months later.

The CPS said that a total of £ 16,000 cash was found at his house, as well as a fake remittance slip, which believed that he planned to try and persuade the bank to return the frozen money. Had been.

Following the CPS -convicted decision, Kelly Ward said: “Baig took advantage of the difficult conditions of epidemic in 2020 and excluded the council from the taxpayers’ money.

“Those who cheat public purses, they are stealing money, which should go to the correctly services and community or, in this case, towards supporting small businesses through an extremely challenging time.”

Ms. Ward said that action will be initiated to recover any property generated by the criminality of Baig with the defense due to the sentencing on 31 March.

A spokesman for the Leeds City Council said: “The purpose of this money was to support local businesses in Leeds when they were facing unprecedented pressures and when the city and its community are coming together to get through the epidemic Were.

“It is shocking for someone to take advantage of such challenging circumstances and to cheat public purse and we want to thank everyone involved in this investigation to help ensure justice.”

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