Pizzeria boss given eight-year ban after £50,000 Bounce Back Loan goes missing

A Glasgow pizzeria boss has been given an eight-year ban for failing to maintain proper books and records.

Ilir Bajrami, aged 61, from Glasgow, was unable to explain what a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan, issued to support businesses during the pandemic, was used for.

Bajrami was the sole director of Kleida Pizzeria Ltd, which entered creditors voluntary liquidation in July 2020 when it was unable to pay a substantial tax bill.

Investigators from the Insolvency Service found that Bajrami failed to co-operate with the liquidators and failed to provide company accounting records, despite numerous requests.

Due to a lack of records, no-one could determine the real reason for nearly £650,000 worth of income into Kleida Pizzeria’s accounts or what the company spent more than £736,000 on.

Further enquiries uncovered that the pizzeria also received a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan on 7 May 2020 to be used to help the business during the pandemic.

But only seven days later, Bajrami caused the company to transfer £90,000 to an unknown account, which included the £50,000 bounce back loan.

The Insolvency Service launched disqualification proceedings and on 27 January 2022 the case appeared before Sheriff Reid in Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Bajrami was given an eight-year disqualification after he failed to ensure Kleida Pizzeria Limited maintained, preserved or delivered adequate accounting records.

The ban began on 24 February 2022 and means he is prevented both from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Robert Clarke, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “The inability to account for the company’s income and expenditure is made all the more serious by the fact that £50,000 of that income relates to government funds to support businesses during the pandemic, which have now disappeared.

“lir Bajrami has paid the price for his failure to account for that money, and has been removed from the corporate arena by the courts for a substantial amount of time.”

Image: nampix / Shutterstock