'Greggs' fraudster jailed over £710k council scam

A man who defrauded a council out of £710,000 by posing as the manager of 32 branches of Greggs has been jailed for four years.

Aftab Baig, 47, of Paisley Road West, Glasgow, made fraudulent small business grant claims from Leeds City Council during the Covid pandemic in May 2020.

Baig, who had no links to Greggs, had claimed he was paid for the use of his bank account, but was found guilty in February of three counts of fraud.

Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, the Recorder of Leeds, Guy Kearl KC, said it was "a disgraceful attempt to deprive the government of monies which were in short supply at a time of extreme public anxiety and crisis".

He told Baig it had been a "sophisticated" fraud, stealing money that was "to help businesses remain afloat in times of national difficulty".

The court heard how the money had been set aside by the government to help small businesses with the impact of the Covid pandemic.

The court had heard that Baig contacted Leeds City Council pretending to be a group property manager at Greggs Head Office, asking for business rates numbers for Leeds branches, details which he claimed he could not access due to lockdown.

He then used the details to apply for rates relief amounting to £710,000, which was paid into a bank account associated with his catering business.

When the council realised the claims were fraudulent his bank account was frozen, but he had already moved £95,000 to separate accounts.

Baig was arrested at his address in Glasgow in July 2020 and about £16,000 in cash was found, as well as forged remittance slips which officers believed he was planning to use to try and persuade the bank to return the frozen money.

Judge Kearl told Baig it was clear to him that he was acting as part of a group which sought to benefit by defrauding the government at a time of national crisis.

He said Baig had no previous convictions and was a family man of good character, but there must be "a deterrence element to the sentence".

He told him he would be jailed for four years and would serve half, before being released on licence.

Further hearings would take place to recover money under the Proceeds of Crime Act, he said.

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."

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