A man has been barred from being the director of a company for 11 years after being found to have fraudulently claimed almost £250,000 from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Aaron Moffatt, 33, submitted inaccurate CJRS (also known as furlough) claims to HM Revenue and Customs between September 30, 2020, and May 17, 2021, for the Creative Events Group Limited based at a unit off Blackburn Road, Padiham.

He also submitted false claims through the company following the date of its liquidation, and has now been disqualified from being a company director for 11 years by the Insolvency Service.

This included tens of thousands of pounds been paid into an account not belonging to the company, and money being diverted for a ‘savings’ and a ‘divorce settlement’.

The Insolvency Service said the Government furlough scheme was “introduced to support businesses in paying their employees during the coronavirus pandemic”.

“The inaccurate and false CJRS claims submitted by Creative Events Group resulted in the receipt of CJRS payments it was not entitled to, and in direct breach of the terms of the scheme, not all funds received via the CJRS claims were paid to employees of the company.”

The company’s former accountant told the Insolvency Service it was no longer instructed to complete payroll after September 15, 2020.

Between September 30, 2020, and February 9, 2021, the company submitted 13 furlough claims, resulting in payments of £159,716, said to be for wages during that period.

Between September 16, 2020, and the date of the company’s liquidation the following May, just £28,494 was paid out in staff wages and expenses, while Mr Moffatt received payments of £58,480.

He paid £13,050 back to the company, resulting in a net outflow to him of £45,430, and he claimed £23,016 of the cash he received was for company spending.

Between September 30, 2020, and February 11, 2021, the firm made payments of £67,655 that didn’t appear to benefit the company, with £64,755 of the money labelled ‘Savings’ and the rest annotated ‘C Barrett Divorce Settlement’.

During that period, Mr Moffatt said £19,159 of the money he received was for company spending, and the rest of the money he received was accounted for by an increase to his DLA.

Between February 19 and March 24, 2021, a further five furlough claims were made resulting in payments of £53,700, said to be covering payroll between February 24 and April 7.

However, the bank said the account the money was paid into was not operated by Creative Events Group or any other company.

The company then went into liquidation on April 1, 2021, and three furlough claims worth £63,500 were made dated April 2 and 19, and May 17, 2021.

Only £28,500 of the claims was paid by HMRC as the May 17 claim was denied, and again this money was paid into an account the bank said was not controlled by Creative Events Group or any other company.

This brought the total amount received by the company due to Mr Moffatt’s claims – after its accountants had ceased to complete its payroll – to £241,916.