Fraudster’s bid to use state aid to secure £41k Porsche foiled

A WOULD-BE fraudster attempted to use a Covid-19 financial rescue scheme to buy a £41,000 Porsche from a car dealership, it has emerged.

James Glen Car Sales in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, was targeted by a man who offered to buy the Porsche Cayman with a lump sum on Thursday.

Stephen Bogan, who runs the businesses with his father, Jim, received a call from the man, who had an English accent and called himself Brian.

But his offer to pay for the car in full by bank transfer raised suspicions.

Mr Bogan told the PA news agency: “I was suspicious from the word go. He told me he was buying for a corporate customer who was coming back from Dubai.”

Mr Bogan sent the man an invoice and, when the money arrived in the dealership’s account, his father queried the payment with the Bank of Scotland.

The fraudster said his company was called BBL Ltd and the payment had a “BBL” reference attached.

But the bank revealed that the money was, in fact, from a bounceback loan, a scheme set up by the Government to offer interest-free funds to businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The scammer applied for the loan on behalf of James Glen Car Sales using information taken from the invoice for the Porsche and data available online about the owners.

The dealership believes the man hoped they would assume the funds were from him, and allow him to drive away with a brand new Porsche.

The dealership has now been contacted by other sales rooms who fear they may have been the victims of similar scams.

‘I was suspicious from the word go. He told me he was buying for a corporate customer from Dubai’