Convicted Covid fraudster who ran mobile phone shops ordered to repay almost £200,000
Zahid Afzal fraudulently obtained three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans for his mobile phone companies after they had already received £52,500 legitimately
He falsely declared his companies had not received previous Bounce Back Loans, inflated turnover figures for one of the companies, and transferred significant amounts to his personal accounts
Afzal has been ordered to repay £197,306 following a confiscation hearing and faces prison if he fails to comply
A convicted fraudster who secured £150,000 in Covid support for mobile phone shops in England and Wales has been ordered to repay all the money.
Zahid Afzal made two legitimate applications for Bounce Back Loans totalling £52,500 on behalf of his companies Phone Bits Limited and Phones Onn Ltd in 2020.
However, Afzal then exploited the scheme by applying for three maximum-value loans of £50,000 each when companies were only entitled to a single loan.
Afzal received the £150,000 – one £50,000 loan for Phone Bits Limited and two £50,000 loans for Phones Onn Ltd – between May and November 2020.
The 37-year-old, of Albert Street, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was ordered to pay £197,306 within three months at a confiscation hearing at Swansea Crown Court on Monday 19 January.
Afzal, who has only paid back £2,722 in the more than five years since the applications were made, will face two years in prison if he fails to repay the money.
Even if he does not comply with the order and goes to jail, he will still be required to pay back the funds he fraudulently obtained.
This confiscation order follows a suspended sentence Afzal received in 2025 for these offences after pleading guilty to charges of fraud following Insolvency Service investigations.
Alexander Grierson, Head of Asset Recovery at the Insolvency Service, said:
When Zahid Afzal stood up in court and admitted he still had the fraudulently obtained Bounce Back Loan funds, he made our job of recovering them far easier.
Afzal deliberately abused the Bounce Back Loan Scheme by applying for loans he knew he was not entitled to and which were not for business use.
Tackling Bounce Back Loan fraud remains a key priority for the Insolvency Service and we are determined criminals such as Afzal are not allowed to benefit financially from their greed during the pandemic.
Afzal’s companies ran mobile phone shops or kiosks in Carmarthen, Shropshire, Andover in Hampshire and North Devon.
His first fraudulent application came in May 2020, when he falsely declared that Phone Bits Limited had not received a Bounce Back Loan.
In reality, Bounce Back Loan funds worth £32,500 had been paid into Phone Bits Limited’s business account only the day before this application.
Afzal also falsely stated on Bounce Back Loan applications in July and November 2020 that the turnover of Phones Onn Ltd was £200,000, the minimum amount it could be to secure a £50,000 loan.
However, Afzal had stated the company’s turnover was only £80,000 in his legitimate application for a £20,000 Bounce Back Loan for Phones Onn Ltd.
Afzal fraudulently declared that Phones Onn Ltd had not received a Bounce Back Loan, repeating the same false claim he made for Phone Bits Limited.
In fact, the £20,000 had been paid into Phones Onn Ltd’s business account in May 2020.
A significant amount of the £150,000 paid into the two company accounts was subsequently transferred to Afzal’s personal accounts, again breaking the rules of the scheme which said that the loans could only be used for the economic benefit of the business.
Afzal was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, in June 2025. He was also ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work.
Subsequent investigations by the Insolvency Service under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 resulted in a restraint order being granted against Afzal’s accounts, preventing assets from being moved or spent.
The £197,306 confiscated under the order covers the three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans Afzal secured, plus indexation to account for the change in the value of money since 2020.
