A director of a construction company from Saddleworth has received a lengthy ban after he was found to have wrongly claimed funds totalling more than £63,000 in Covid furlough support.

Between April 2020 and October 2021, David Andrew Bolan of Dole Nook Farm, Thurston Clough Road in Scouthead, sought Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) payments for his company, Bolan Building Limited.

The company was incorporated in 2003 and its office was operated in a unit in Guide Bridge Mill, South Street, Ashton-under-Lyne.

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But amid the Coronavirus pandemic, Mr Bolan claimed £63,893 from HMRC in furlough support for staff, which the Insolvency Service notice states he was "not entitled" to.

The company had an office in a mill in AshtonThe company had an office in a mill in Ashton (Image: Google Maps)

The government introduced CJRS in order to assist employers who were unable to maintain their workforce because their businesses had been affected by the pandemic.

CJRS enabled employers to put staff on furlough, with 80 per cent of their wages being paid each month based on figures provided to HMRC before March 19, 2020.

The eligibility for payments required a staff member to be enrolled as an employee on the company's PAYE scheme as of this date.

However, the 64-year-old made 23 claims for CJRS payments for employees who were not enrolled in the company before the cut-off date.

Claims for 'fixed pay employees' under the scheme were calculated based on their ‘usual pay’ pre-March 2020.

Records show Bolan Building Limited had claimed for five fixed-pay employees, two of whom earned £961 per month and the remaining three earned £985 each.

CJRS claims for the five fixed-pay employees were based on a ‘usual pay’ figure of £3,200 each.

The company also claimed funds for two variable-pay employees, which were to be calculated on wages in the tax year 2019 to 2020.

The total claims made meant the company received a total of £123,716 in CJRS payments between April 2020 and October 2021.

Rural views from Thurston Clough RoadRural views from Thurston Clough Road (Image: Google Maps)

However, Mr Bolan was unable to provide the necessary documents to HMRC to support his claims.

The director has now been served with a notice for the recovery of incorrectly claimed CJRS funds of £63,893.

The Insolvency Service also disqualified Bolan from acting as a director for seven years while Bolan Building Limited was liquidated in July last year.

Records on Companies House further reveal Mr Bolan was once the director of three other companies, Bolan Joinery Limited, Thurstonclough Construction LTD and Bolan and Greenall Construction Limited, which were dissolved in 2015, 2016 and 2022 respectively.

Got a story? Email me Olivia.bridge@newsquest.co.uk