Thousands of businesses under investigation for coronavirus fraud

By the end of March 2021 HMRC had carried out over 12 000 interventions relating to the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) and eat out to help out scheme (EOHO) according to research carried out by law firm BLM.

HMRC provided information on the formal compliance interventions relating to error and fraudulent risks for each of the schemes in response to a freedom of information (FOI) request. The CJRS had the highest number (7 384) the SEISS followed closely (5 020) while the EOHO scheme (424) had the fewest.

In addition HMRC revealed that as at 28 March 2021 five individuals had been arrested in relation to the CJRS and three in relation to the EOHO. It was unable to confirm the current number of prosecutions relating to the schemes.

In June HMRC reported that almost £18bn has...