British entrepreneur sentenced to prison for £216,250 coronavirus loan scam

A Cardiff businesswoman, Rupali Wagh, 50, of Harrison Way, has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for defrauding the UK government's Covid-19 Bounce Back Loan Scheme of £216,250 through five false loan applications across four companies.

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Wagh's scheme involved inflating the turnover of her businesses, obtaining duplicate loans for companies that had already received funding, and using the money to settle personal debts and buy stocks and shares, with the fraudulent activities taking place between May and September 2020.

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She pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud at Cardiff Crown Court in November 2025, and was sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Friday, July 17, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

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Commenting on the conviction, David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, stated that Wagh had systematically targeted the scheme designed to help genuine businesses survive the pandemic, by lying about her turnover and obtaining duplicate loans for the same businesses.

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Wagh used the funds to pay off personal debts and buy stocks and shares, and initially tried to blame someone else for her actions before admitting she had acted alone, according to the Insolvency Service.

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Wagh's first fraudulent application was made in early May 2020, when she applied for a £16,250 Bounce Back Loan for One2Four Accounting Ltd, declaring the company had a turnover of £65,000, despite the actual turnover being just £39,000 for the previous calendar year.

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Within weeks of receiving the funds, Wagh transferred the money into her personal bank account and spent most of it paying off debts and purchasing stocks and shares, according to the Insolvency Service.

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Wagh followed this with a £50,000 application for Talensetu UK Ltd, claiming the company had a turnover of £218,000, despite dormant accounts showing it was not trading between June 2019 and June 2020.

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She transferred the entire £50,000 into her personal account and spent it on personal finance and stocks and shares, also transferring more than £25,000 to an account in India, according to the Insolvency Service.

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Wagh later secured a second £50,000 Bounce Back Loan for Talensetu UK Ltd by falsely declaring it was the company's only application under the scheme, despite having already received funding.

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She claimed a turnover of £225,000 for Talensetu UK Ltd, despite estimating the company's turnover for the next calendar year as just £72,000 on the bank account application form completed the same day.

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Wagh then made a fourth fraudulent application for White Coconut Ltd, claiming a turnover of £252,000, and falsely declaring this was the company's only Bounce Back Loan application, despite having already secured £18,000 from the bank for the same business three months earlier.

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Her fifth fraudulent application was for Indian Canteen Ltd, with Wagh claiming a turnover of £206,000, despite estimating on her bank account application that the company's turnover for the next year would be just £82,000.

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Wagh later transferred more than £25,000 of the loan funds to White Coconut Ltd, and initially attempted to shift responsibility during the investigation by blaming a third party for one of the loan applications.

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She later retracted this and acknowledged she had acted alone, admitting to using the funds to pay off personal credit card debts and loans, saying she thought that by clearing her personal debts she would be helping her businesses.

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The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.