Overview

• Ioannou was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 7 October to 22 months in custody, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work.
• He secured two £50,000 loans within eight days in summer 2020 after declaring different 2019 turnover figures on each application.
• Investigators found 38 transfers totaling nearly £20,000 to his personal account, about £25,000 to gambling firms, roughly £8,000 to investment and crypto companies, and almost £6,000 in cash withdrawals.
• A further £16,000 from the second loan was transferred to an account in the name of his then partner, while the first loan was used for the business.
• Opti-Bond (GB) Ltd went into liquidation in November 2021, and Ioannou failed to disclose the first loan to the liquidator, as the Insolvency Service signaled continued enforcement of Bounce Back Loan abuses.