A Glasgow man who posed as a Greggs employee has been jailed for four years after swindling a council out of more than £700,000 in Covid grants.
Aftab Baig, 47, of Paisley Road West, posed as the manager of 32 branches of Greggs bakery to make fraudulent small business grant claims in May 2020.
Baig, who had no links to the popular bakery chain, was found guilty in February of three counts of fraud and received his sentencing at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday.
The court heard how Baig reached out to Leeds City Council, pretending to be a group property manager at Greggs Head Office.
Aftab Baig has been jailed for four years
PA
He sent an "authentic" looking email from a fake "Greggs corporate" address, requesting business rates numbers for Leeds branches under the guise that he could not access these details himself due to lockdown restrictions.
He then used the information to apply for rates relief amounting to £710,000 from the small business grant fund.
The money was paid into a bank account associated with his own catering business.
Five days later, the council realised the claims were fraudulent and Baig's bank account was frozen - but only after he had already moved £95,000 to separate accounts.
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Most of the money was later returned to the local authority, but more than £90,000 remained outstanding.
The fraud took advantage of a system set up during lockdown to process claims "quickly and with minimal security checks" to minimise disruption to businesses.
Sentencing Baig, Recorder of Leeds Guy Kearl KC described the fraud as "a disgraceful attempt to deprive the government of monies which were in short supply at a time of extreme public anxiety and crisis".
Judge Kearl added it had been a "sophisticated" fraud, stealing money intended "to help businesses remain afloat in times of national difficulty".
Baig was arrested at his Glasgow address in July 2020.
The Glasgow man posed as a Greggs manager to swindle Leeds City Council out of more than £700,000 in Covid grants
PA
Police found approximately £16,000 in cash at his home, along with forged remittance slips they believed he planned to use to persuade the bank to release the frozen funds.
The judge told Baig he would serve half of his four-year sentence before being released on licence.
Further hearings will take place to recover money under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
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."
