Fraudster funnelled Bounce Back loan cash to overseas accounts
A woman from Northolt has been handed a suspended prison sentence after orchestrating a fake business scheme to fraudulently claim a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back loan.
Jagoda Rubaszko, 37, residing on Old Ruislip Road, invented a bogus administrative firm to access Government support intended for businesses affected by the pandemic. However, no such business existed.
Rubaszko falsely declared that her supposed business generated a £210,000 turnover. In reality, her tax records revealed a stark contrast — her income never exceeded £15,100 annually between 2019 and 2021.
The £50,000 loan, meant to support struggling UK businesses, was instead divided and sent to five separate bank accounts in Poland over the course of two months.
She told investigators that a man named “Daniel” had guided her through the loan application and advised her to declare bankruptcy to avoid repayment.
“Jagoda Rubaszko claimed to be a business director, but she had no business at all. She invented a turnover of £210,000 even though her bank accounts showed no business dealings,” said Mark Stephens, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service.
Rubaszko insisted she paid Daniel a £17,500 commission for his help, despite never having met him. But investigators found no such payment in her financial records. Instead, 22 transactions — some as high as £11,690 — were traced to accounts in Poland.
“She invented a man called Daniel, who she has blamed for her actions, claiming he had told her to apply for the loan, and she believed she’d get away with this by declaring herself bankrupt,” added Stephens.
On 5 June 2025, at Isleworth Crown Court, Rubaszko was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for 21 months. Her sentence includes:
- Wearing an electronic tag
- A nightly curfew from 7.30pm to 6am for six months
- 175 hours of unpaid community work
The Insolvency Service is now working to recover the defrauded Covid loan through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Following her self-declared bankruptcy, Rubaszko was hit with a 10-year Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertaking (BRU) in May 2023. This restricts her from managing or directing any limited company until 2033.
“What is definitely real is that she took money which was meant to help businesses during a difficult period, and sent that funding off to the bank accounts of five men in Poland. As a result, reality has now caught up with her,” Stephens stated.
The case highlights increasing efforts by UK authorities to clamp down on Covid loan fraud, with a growing number of investigations into misuse of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.
