West Yorkshire man jailed for Eat Out to Help Out fraud

A former West Yorkshire town councillor has been jailed for trying to steal more than £430,000 through the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

Mohammed Ikram, 36, of Springfield Court, Keighley, admitted stealing money from the Covid-19 support schemes, following an investigation by HM Revenue and Custom’s (HMRC) Taxpayer Protection Taskforce.

He used his own café and takeaway business as well as several fake food outlets to submit fraudulent claims under the scheme, and pocketed thousands of pounds in payments that he was not entitled to.

Mohammed Ikram was also previously a member of Keighley Town Council until his resignation in 2022.

Simon York, Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said:

“This was a blatant fraud by somebody who held a position of trust and responsibility.

“These schemes were designed to support individuals and businesses during a terribly difficult period. Instead, Mohammed Ikram stole money which should have been paying for vital public services and helping those who needed it most.

“This is the first conviction of Covid scheme fraud by HMRC, but we have arrested 70 people and have a number of cases working their way through the criminal justice system. So far, we have prevented the payment of, or recovered more than £1.2 billion, with compliance activity still ongoing.”

The Eat Out to Help Out scheme was introduced to support the hospitality sector throughout August 2020. It enabled restaurants, cafés, pubs and other food outlets to offer a discount to customers and obtain a reimbursement from HMRC for the same amount.

Mohammed Ikram used his business Khan’s Café and Chai Point, in Keighley, and also set up seven fake food outlets using hijacked company details, to submit 20 fraudulent claims under the scheme, worth a total of £434,073, between 7 August and 6 September 2020.

He received £189,208 in payments, but further claims, totalling £244,865, were rejected by HMRC and an investigation was launched.

He admitted cheating the public revenue, fraud by false representation and associated money laundering, at Bradford Crown Court in June 2022, and was jailed today for two-and-a-half years at the same court.

Action to recover the stolen money has been launched.

Notes for editors

1. Mohammed Ikram, DOB 20/12/1986, of Springfield Court, Keighley, admitted to Cheating the Public Revenue, Fraud by False Representation and money laundering. He was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Bradford Crown Court today (31 March 2023).
2. The Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme helped support the hospitality industry and protect more than 1.8 million jobs during the pandemic. It was introduced to support the hospitality sector throughout August 2020. It enabled restaurants, cafés, pubs and other eligible establishments such as workplace and school canteens to offer a discount to customers dining in their outlet and obtain a reimbursement from HMRC for the same amount.
3. The scheme offered a 50% discount off the purchase of food and non-alcoholic drinks bought to eat in, up to a maximum of £10 per person. The discount was available all day every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 3rd and 31st August. The discount did not apply to takeaway food.
   
4. Each business was required to submit a separate claim for each week that they operated the scheme.
   
5. We designed the scheme to prevent as much fraud as possible before any payments were made, while still quickly supporting those who needed it. These design measures gave us the confidence to get the scheme up and running quickly, based on sound judgement about the level of risk involved.
   
6. The speed of the Government and HMRC response and how the eligibility criteria was set helped ensure that organised criminals had limited opportunity to exploit the schemes. Pre-payment checks included matching lists of known suspect organisations and devices against claims. As a result, the assessment of losses from organised crime are low – 0.6% for EOTHO.
   
7. We remain absolutely committed to tackling error and fraud in the covid support schemes and are not writing anything off. So far, HMRC has undertaken around 50,000 investigations and made 70 arrests in relation to alleged Covid support scheme fraud.
   
8. The total amount of money we have either prevented from being paid out, or have recovered since the start of the schemes, is more than £1.2 billion, with compliance activity still ongoing.
   
9. You can find out more about HMRC's approach to tax fraud at gov.uk
   
10. Follow HMRC’s Press Office on Twitter @HMRCpressoffice