Man jailed after defrauding council of £700k in Covid support

A man who posed as a group property manager for Greggs has been jailed for four years after fraudulently claiming more than £710,000 from Leeds City Council in Covid-19 support grants intended for small businesses.

Aftab Baig, 47, from Glasgow, was convicted in February this year at Leeds Crown Court of three counts of fraud after he falsely claimed Small Business Grant Fund payments for 32 Leeds properties.

The Small Business Grant Fund was a scheme set up by the Government to help small businesses with business rates relief.

The CPS said the man contacted the council in May 2020 pretending to work at the bakery chain's head office and requested business rates information, which he said he could not access due to lockdown restrictions.

The man later used the information to apply for rates relief totalling over £710,000 which was paid into a bank account associated with his catering business.

After the council realised the claims were fraudulent, action was taken, which resulted in the account being frozen.

Most of the money was later recovered, but more than £90,000 remains to be paid back, the CPS said.

Baig was convicted in February 2025, however news of his sentencing came last week (15 April).

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."

Commenting on his conviction in February, a spokesperson for Leeds City Council said the local authority was pleased the man had "been held to account for what was a brazen and calculated act of fraud".

It added: "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."

Adam Carey