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A pizza boss has been jailed for fraudulently securing £150,000 in Covid loans.
Matthew Temple, 44, ran Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited and used company funds to gamble and buy children’s toys during the pandemic.
He obtained three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans in just over a month, despite businesses being eligible for only one under the taxpayer-backed scheme.
Temple, of Bank Court, North Shields, was sentenced to two years in prison at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday, October 23, after admitting three counts of fraud by false representation.
David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: "Matthew Temple exploited a taxpayer-backed scheme designed to help businesses through the pandemic by obtaining three £50,000 loans when his company was entitled to only one.
"Company funds were then spent on gambling and even children’s toys and play equipment, despite Temple declaring the money would be used for the benefit of his business.
"Temple is now beginning a two-year prison sentence, but our work does not stop at securing a conviction.
"We are also seeking to recover the money he fraudulently obtained and return funds to the public purse."
Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited was incorporated in June 2016 with Temple as its sole director.
He secured the first £50,000 loan in May 2020, shortly after the scheme launched.
Three days later, he applied for a second loan, falsely claiming it was the company’s only application.
The following month, he secured a third loan under the same false declaration.
He also told lenders that the funds would be used for business purposes.
However, the Insolvency Service found that £131,419 of the £150,000 was not used for legitimate business expenses.
This included £11,090 spent on 46 gambling transactions over less than two weeks in July 2020.
When questioned about the second loan, Temple admitted: "I know it was my fault, I shouldn’t… I should tell them it was my second, but they didn’t check it either."
He pleaded guilty in September this year at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.
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Investigators also discovered that £264 was spent on children’s toys and play equipment on May 7, 2020, a day after the first loan was received.
Temple had already been disqualified from serving as a company director for 12 years in 2024 following civil investigations by the Insolvency Service.
The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.