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A Jersey doctor who was previously jailed for stealing millions from a software company has been sent back behind bars for obtaining a covid loan with a fake name and using part of it to help pay off a £72m court order.
Investigations by City of London Police revealed Mr Smith (69) had exploited the UK's 'bounce back' loan scheme to the maximum value of £50,000, and he was last week jailed for 18 months at Southwark Crown Court.
The loan was set up in 2020 to support UK businesses negatively affected by the pandemic. It was backed by the UK government with a low interest rate, to be paid back over a six- or 10-year period.
Mr Smith had applied for a loan under the name 'Ian Dunbar', who was listed as a director of Arcana Solutions Ltd. The full £50,000 loan was paid out to Arcana Solutions Ltd. and signed under the false name via electronic signature.
It later transpired, however, that Ian Dunbar and Gerald Smith were the same person.
“Gerald Smith demonstrated an incredible degree of manipulation, conceit and greed as he exploited the bounce-back loan scheme offered by the government," Detective Inspector Andrea Bakewell from City of London Police said.
"This level of exploitation during one of the hardest periods this country has ever faced is something we will not tolerate."
IP addresses, email addresses on online invoices, and train tickets showed that the loan was being used by Gerald Smith to fund flights abroad, designer items, Apple products and lavish meals.
Kevin Hansford of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Gerald Smith took advantage of a government system designed to protect and support businesses through the Covid pandemic. Rather than using the funds for legitimate business purposes, Smith diverted them for his own personal use and to fund a court costs order.
"The CPS and investigative agencies will continue to pursue fraudsters who dishonestly enriched themselves from government support grants and loans."
Pictured: Mr Smith currently owes over £72m.
City of London Police also discovered that Smith used £22,000 of the £50,000 to help pay back court order fees linked to the historic fraud case involving his Jersey-based investment business.
In 2006, Smith was imprisoned on charges of theft and false accounting after taking £34m from IT company Indoia PLC, and putting the money into his own account via his own Jersey-registered company ORB group.
He was ordered to pay a confiscation order of £41m – the largest order made in criminal proceedings at the time.
In 2019, Mr Smith told the court that he was too poor to pay back what he owed, despite visiting numerous luxury destinations and using a private jet for more than 100 trips in a single year.
In 2022, Smith swerved jail after what was described as "lavish" spending of frozen assets at bars, restaurants and wine merchants. He was instead handed an eight-month suspended sentence.
At the time, Emma Luxton from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said: "The SFO is resolute in the pursuit of justice and refusal to accommodate those attempting to conceal the proceeds of crime, no matter how many years have passed since their crimes were committed."
With interest, Mr Smith currently owes more than £72m in total.
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