Ilford Family Exploited Pandemic Support for Personal Gain
An East London family from Ilford has been sentenced for fraudulently obtaining £150,000 in government-backed Bounce Back Loans (BBL) during the Covid-19 pandemic, using the funds to finance a lavish lifestyle rather than legitimate business needs. The group, consisting of Kashid Rashid, 53, his wife Noreen Malik, 46, nephew Rehaan Mohammed, 32, and brother Rizwan Haider, 61, established or utilized multiple fake businesses to apply for the emergency financial assistance.
Systematic Fraud Uncovered by National Crime Agency
The National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation revealed that the family falsely claimed their businesses were adversely affected by lockdown measures, inflating annual turnovers to qualify for maximum loans of £50,000 per application. Instead of using the money for business purposes, they diverted funds to pay for house upgrades, private school fees, and transfers to other family members and controlled businesses.
Voice notes recovered by investigators captured Rashid discussing the creation of false invoices to support loan applications. In July 2020, he attempted to purchase another company specifically to claim an additional BBL, offering the owner £15,000 to apply for the loan through their business account before the sale. The owner ultimately declined to proceed.
Multiple Fraud Schemes and Previous Convictions
The fraud extended beyond Bounce Back Loans. Investigators discovered Rashid had fraudulently claimed Universal Credit under an alias, failing to disclose he had a child and never residing at the address he claimed. He was arrested in August 2020 for this separate offense.
Further investigation revealed Rashid had legally changed his name nine times over ten years, deliberately obstructing financial institutions from conducting proper credit checks. He has previous fraud convictions in both the United States and Romania.
A second fraud was uncovered through documents found in Rashid's hire car, involving Patric Ciwinski, 36, who attempted to fraudulently set up a false Universal Credit claim under the name Robert Wright. No funds were received before this fraud was detected.
Court Proceedings and Sentencing
After a five-week trial at Southwark Crown Court concluding on November 28, 2025, the defendants were convicted by a jury. Rashid had admitted one count of fraud by false representation related to the Universal Credit fraud but denied all other charges alongside his co-defendants.
On February 27, 2026, Rashid was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison. Upon completion of his UK sentence, he will be extradited to Romania to serve an additional four-year prison sentence for previous convictions. Mohammed received a three-year prison term for his involvement.
Malik and Haider each received two-year sentences suspended for two years, while Ciwinski was given a 12-month community order. Rashid, Mohammed, Malik, and Haider were also disqualified from serving as company directors for specified periods.
Judge and NCA Condemn Exploitation of Crisis Support
Judge Hale condemned the group's actions, stating they had "deliberately exploited a government scheme which was set up to assist a national crisis," describing their offenses as "a systematic and repeated assault on the banks and the Bounce Back scheme."
Alistair Reid from the NCA emphasized the broader impact: "Bounce Back Loans were a vital tool for businesses to help them stay afloat during the pandemic. However, this family saw it as an opportunity to exploit the system when the country faced unprecedented challenges."
He added: "The money they fraudulently claimed was spent on their lavish lifestyles—funding car payments, house renovations, and private school payments. Fraud of this nature undermines trust in government initiatives, diverts essential funds from genuine businesses, and damages financial system integrity, ultimately harming local economies, jobs, and communities recovering from Covid lockdowns."
During investigations, Mohammed was arrested in April 2021, while Malik, Haider, and Ciwinski attended voluntary interviews in 2021 and 2022. All declined to answer questions from officers. The final loan application submitted by Mohammed was rejected because the company was dormant.
