Thread by @ianbeckett

1/ @ArmitageJim @premnsikka More from the ‘rotten boroughs’ in only the first conviction of an ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ Govt. COVID support scheme blagger (bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…). Now convicted fraudster/money launderer Mohammed Ikram reportedly made 19 fake claims (£434k) for …

2/ eight different food outlets through the scheme, most of which were "entirely fictitious". Md. Ikram, now a former Keighley Town councillor was also a member of it’s Finance & Audit Committee. Scant publicly available records seemingly indicate Md. Ikram was a ‘co-opted’ …

3/ (unelected) Keighley Town councillor from around 03/2021, some 6 months or so after reportedly making 19 fraudulent ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ claims over four weeks in 08 & 09/2020. The court reportedly heard that Md. Ikram had run up debts ‘running a care home’ - …

4/ allegedly ‘Cliffemount Community Care’ (Cliffemount Community Care Ltd). In 2018 following a whistleblower tip off, the #CQC inspected the care home & put it in to ‘special measures’. The CQC found shocking financial miss-management & the service ‘not to be safe’ …

5/ (api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/repo…). Shortly after Md. Ikram & associates (the Iqbals’) bailed/the CQC cancelled Cliffemount Community Care’s registration.

6/ Back in 2014 Keighley Town Council was making shocking headlines + faced calls to be taken over after a damning audit exposed a ‘catalogue of weaknesses & potentially unlawful practices’. The council’s long term external auditor (#PKF) refused to certify the council’s last …

7/ filed (2019/20) accounts in 11/2020, taking some 16 months extra before certifying the council’s accounts in 03/2022. In 2020 the council’s former Town Clerk & RFO (Responsible Financial Officer) had called for probe in to the authority & submitted her findings to the …

8/ council’s external auditors (#PKF). The Govt.’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ COVID support scheme relied on Councils to register ‘eligible food businesses’ on or before 07/2020 (drive.google.com/file/d/1hEBbJt…).

9/9 The Govt.’s ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ COVID support scheme reportedly cost the taxpayer £840m - around 2x the £500m HM Treasury forecast. Lifeblood to hard pressed eateries - ‘fat of the land’ to the UK’s unfettered fraudsters.