The Insolvency Service has secured a prison sentence in one of the clearer Bounce Back Loan fraud cases to come before the courts. Rupali Wagh, a 50-year-old businesswoman from Cardiff, was jailed for two years and three months at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on 17 July 2026 after admitting five fraud offences linked to Covid support borrowing. At the centre of the case was £216,250 claimed through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme across four companies between May and September 2020. The wider point is simple enough: emergency support only works quickly when lenders and the state can trust directors to use it for genuine business need.

Bounce Back Loans were introduced in 2020 as fast, state-backed finance for small firms hit by the pandemic. That speed was the point. Many businesses needed cash immediately, not after months of checks, but the same design also left room for abuse where turnover figures were self-certified and money could be drawn before deeper scrutiny followed. David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Wagh had targeted a scheme meant to help real businesses survive. For honest SMEs, that is the part that stings. Each case of misuse makes future support harder to deliver cleanly and can mean more friction for firms that have done nothing wrong.

The first application identified by the Insolvency Service came in early May 2020 for One2Four Accounting Ltd, a bookkeeping company incorporated in June 2018. Wagh applied for £16,250 after declaring turnover of £65,000, even though the company’s turnover for the previous calendar year was £39,000. Investigators said the money was moved into Wagh’s personal bank account within weeks of arriving. Instead of remaining inside the company for trading costs, much of it was used to pay personal debts and to buy stocks and shares, which cut directly against the scheme’s rule that the funds were for business purposes.

Talensetu UK Ltd accounted for the largest share of the borrowing. In June 2020, Wagh applied for the maximum £50,000 after claiming turnover of £218,000, despite dormant accounts filed for the period from June 2019 to June 2020 showing the company was not trading. According to the Insolvency Service, she then went to a different bank in July 2020 and secured a second £50,000 for the same company. That second application claimed turnover of £225,000, even though a bank account form completed the same day estimated next-year turnover at only £72,000. Investigators said almost all of the money was again moved into her personal account, with more than £25,000 also transferred to an account in India.

The pattern continued with White Coconut Ltd, which traded as an Indian street food outlet in Cardiff. In August 2020, Wagh applied for £50,000 on the basis of claimed turnover of £252,000, a figure that did not sit comfortably beside the £72,000 turnover estimate she had provided on bank paperwork. The Insolvency Service also said that application was presented as White Coconut’s only Bounce Back Loan request even though an earlier £18,000 loan had already been taken for the same business. A month later, in late September 2020, Wagh applied for another £50,000 for Indian Canteen Ltd, a company incorporated only in January 2020, claiming turnover of £206,000 while estimating just £82,000 on bank forms. More than £25,000 of that loan was later transferred to White Coconut Ltd.

When questioned, Wagh first tried to distance herself from part of the conduct by claiming that somebody else who shared her computer had submitted one of the applications without her knowledge. The Insolvency Service said she later withdrew that account and accepted that she had acted alone. She also admitted using the money to clear personal credit card debts and loans, arguing that reducing her own debts would help her businesses. The courts were not persuaded. Wagh pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud at Cardiff Crown Court in November 2025, which led to the sentence handed down in Merthyr Tydfil on 17 July 2026.

This case is not only about one defendant. It is also a reminder that Covid-era fraud is still working its way through the courts years after the worst of the pandemic passed, and that public money advanced in an emergency can still be pursued long after it was taken. The Insolvency Service is now seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. For directors and small company owners, the lesson is plain. State-backed support is not personal credit, and company money cannot be blurred with household finances or private investing. When that line is crossed, the cost is borne first by taxpayers and lenders, and then by the legitimate firms that may face tighter checks the next time emergency help is needed.