A London hotelier has been sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, after fraudulently securing £450,000 through nine Bounce Back Loan applications during the Covid pandemic.
Richard Courtenay, 62, made the applications between May and June 2020, falsely declaring the turnover of five companies and applying for multiple loans despite businesses being limited to one Bounce Back Loan each. The five companies involved were Hotel Belgravia Limited, Belgravia Rooms Limited, Lebex Limited, Directlingua Limited and Belgravia Accommodation Ltd.
Courtenay secured nine loans of £50,000 each, the maximum available under the scheme. He subsequently transferred funds into his personal accounts, other businesses and, in the case of Lebex Limited, used some of the money to purchase cryptoassets. For Hotel Belgravia Limited, which had only been incorporated in January 2020, Courtenay declared turnover of £500,000 despite dormant accounts later being filed for the company.
He also made two applications for Belgravia Rooms Limited, declaring turnover of £400,000 on both occasions and falsely stating that it was the company’s only Bounce Back Loan application. Courtenay pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud and one count of money laundering in July. At Southwark Crown Court on 3 September 2026, he was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 10 days of rehabilitation activity.
He has since repaid the full £450,000, but only after the Insolvency Service began investigating his conduct.
David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Richard Courtenay is an experienced businessman. It is therefore surprising that he claims he did not read his loan applications carefully or check them for accuracy. The reality is that his actions involved determination in exploiting a scheme vulnerable to fraud. It is clear he was driven by greed, given the sheer number of Bounce Back Loans he obtained within such a short space of time.
“Courtenay has shown limited remorse, denied any dishonesty and blamed the banks for him not keeping up with his repayments. His actions were dishonest when the scheme relied on the complete honesty of business owners while the country was in the grip of a pandemic. The Insolvency Service has a proven track record in tackling Bounce Back Loan fraud and we will continue to ensure fraudsters like Courtenay are held to account for taking advantage of support intended to help businesses when they needed it most.”
A London hotelier has been sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, after fraudulently securing £450,000 through nine Bounce Back Loan applications during the Covid pandemic.
Richard Courtenay, 62, made the applications between May and June 2020, falsely declaring the turnover of five companies and applying for multiple loans despite businesses being limited to one Bounce Back Loan each. The five companies involved were Hotel Belgravia Limited, Belgravia Rooms Limited, Lebex Limited, Directlingua Limited and Belgravia Accommodation Ltd.
Courtenay secured nine loans of £50,000 each, the maximum available under the scheme. He subsequently transferred funds into his personal accounts, other businesses and, in the case of Lebex Limited, used some of the money to purchase cryptoassets. For Hotel Belgravia Limited, which had only been incorporated in January 2020, Courtenay declared turnover of £500,000 despite dormant accounts later being filed for the company.
He also made two applications for Belgravia Rooms Limited, declaring turnover of £400,000 on both occasions and falsely stating that it was the company’s only Bounce Back Loan application. Courtenay pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud and one count of money laundering in July. At Southwark Crown Court on 3 September 2026, he was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 10 days of rehabilitation activity.
He has since repaid the full £450,000, but only after the Insolvency Service began investigating his conduct.
David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Richard Courtenay is an experienced businessman. It is therefore surprising that he claims he did not read his loan applications carefully or check them for accuracy. The reality is that his actions involved determination in exploiting a scheme vulnerable to fraud. It is clear he was driven by greed, given the sheer number of Bounce Back Loans he obtained within such a short space of time.
“Courtenay has shown limited remorse, denied any dishonesty and blamed the banks for him not keeping up with his repayments. His actions were dishonest when the scheme relied on the complete honesty of business owners while the country was in the grip of a pandemic. The Insolvency Service has a proven track record in tackling Bounce Back Loan fraud and we will continue to ensure fraudsters like Courtenay are held to account for taking advantage of support intended to help businesses when they needed it most.”
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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