A convenience store owner has been banned from running a company for 11 years for abusing a Government Covid Bounce Back loan.

Forty year old Lewisham newsagent David Ocaya Okot, director of B&S Newsagents on Manor Lane received the disqualification after admitting taking out a Bounce Back Loan more than six months after closing his store.

After receiving £50,000 under the scheme he transferred the funds from the company directly to his personal bank account. Okot had claimed he was ‘looking to relocate the business’ but investigators ‘found no evidence to support this claim.’

According to the insolvency service, on 31 October the retailer’s disqualification was accepted after Okot ‘did not dispute that B&S News Ltd obtained a Bounce Back Loan and failed to use it in its entirety for the economic benefit of the company. Nor did B&S News Ltd meet the criteria to apply for the loan.”

Okot purchased the store in 2014 but ran into trouble in 2020 when increased competition and rising costs made the business ‘no longer viable.’

The store is not to be confused with other stores trading legitimately under the same name on other roads in South London.

Assistant director at the Insolvency Service, Tom Phillips, said Okot ‘received top-bracket disqualifications, which should serve as a stark warning to other directors that there are serious consequences to those who have abused Bounce Back Loans.’

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