Bank settles on specialist team to tackle Covid loan fraudsters

BARCLAYS has roped in Londonlisted litigation firm Manolete Partners to track Covid fraudsters.

The Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this year how the bank had enrolled fraudbusters to claw back millions of pounds of taxpayer-backed loans from suspected criminals.

The Mail has now learned that Barclays has chosen Manolete Partners, listed on London’s junior stock market Aim, to chase the fraudsters.

The partnership could generate hundreds of thousands of pounds in income for the firm, which specialises in funding complex insolvency cases. Barclays issued 345,006 loans worth £10.8bn to small firms under the Government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme in the pandemic.

Thousands of the loans may have been snapped up by fraudsters, although the original £1bn estimate has been changed to £259m.

Barclays, working with the Business Department and Manolete, has identified around 100 Bounce Back borrowers suspected of fraud. Compulsory liquidation proceedings have been started against most of these businesses.

Whatever sums Manolete claws back, it will keep half, with the rest going to the Treasury.