Manager of 'Manny Steak House' was loaned £100k of tax payer money. She used it to treat herself

A former restaurant manager splurged more than £12,000 of taxpayer’s money on jewellery after fraudulently obtaining two covid loans.

Sehrish Yasmin, of Grasmere Road, Cheadle applied for two Covid Bounce Back Loans worth £100,000 for Manny Steak House Ltd based in south Manchester, despite businesses only being entitled to a single loan under the rules of the scheme.

The 32-year-old first applied for a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan on behalf of Manny Steak House on Wilmslow Road, Rusholme in May 2020. She then secured a second £50,000 loan for the same company just one month later.

READ MORE: Foreign Office issues health alert after serious illness found in UK travellers

Yasmin, who is also a qualified nurse, then proceeded to spend more than £12,000 in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham with the funds, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The former manager was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 12 months last week.

During a sentencing hearing on Thursday (May 16) Yasmin, who has now paid the two loans back in full, was also ordered to pay costs and compensation totalling £5,000 within 28 days.

The Government's Bounce Back Loan Scheme was launched to enable smaller businesses to access finance more quickly during the coronavirus pandemic. Money from the loan could also only be used for the economic benefit of the business, not for personal purposes.

Yasmin should have started repaying each loan one year after she received the funds in 2020, but only started to do so once Insolvency Service investigations began in December 2022, the court heard.

She committed a further offence when Manny Steak House was liquidated in May 2021 by not delivering books and records to the liquidator when requested.

David