Man who pretended to work for Greggs convicted of defrauding council out of small businesses grants during Covid

A man has been found guilty of defrauding Leeds City Council out of more than £710,000 which was meant to support small businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Aftab Baig, 47 from Glasgow, made fraudulent grant claims against thirty-two 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, a scheme set up by the Government to help small businesses with business rates relief.

In May 2020, Baig contacted the council pretending to be a Group Property Manager at Greggs Head Office asking for business rates numbers for Leeds branches, details which he claimed he could not access himself due to lockdown. 

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

In May 2020, with the council having realised the claims were fraudulent, action was taken which resulted in the account being frozen. Whilst the majority of the money was returned to Leeds, more than £90,000 was left outstanding.

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

The CPS said that at Baig’s house, £16,000 in cash was found, as well as forged remittance slips which officers believed that 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 12 February 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.” 

A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: “We are pleased that this case has been brought to a conclusion and that the perpetrator has been held to account for what was a brazen and calculated act of fraud.

“This money was intended to support local businesses in Leeds at a time when they were facing unprecedented pressures and when the city and its communities were coming together to get through the pandemic.

“For someone to take advantage of such challenging circumstances and defraud the public purse is shocking and we would like to thank all those involved in this investigation for helping to ensure justice has been served.”