• Shkelzen Gashi overstated his Smart Tyres Services Ltd company’s turnover by almost double to secure a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan, the most businesses were allowed under the scheme 

• Smart Tyres was entitled to a loan of £33,600 but ended up with £50,000 because of Gashi’s false declaration 

• Gashi has now been disqualified as a company director for a decade following Insolvency Service investigations 

The owner of a North London tyre shop has been banned as a director for 10 years after overstating his company’s turnover to secure a maximum-value Covid loan. 

Shkelzen Gashi ran Smart Tyres Services Ltd from his address on Harringay Road from 2015 to 2022. 

The 53-year-old claimed his company’s turnover was £250,000 when he applied to the bank for a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in 2020. 

In reality, Smart Tyres had a turnover of little more than half that figure. 

Gashi was banned as a company director until April 2035 and ordered to pay costs of £5,333 at a hearing of the High Court in Birmingham on Wednesday 2 April. 

His ban started on Thursday 17 April. 

Gashi has also repaid £8,000 of the Bounce Back Loan. 

Kevin Read, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: 

Shkelzen Gashi blatantly overstated the turnover of his company, ensuring it received significantly more in Covid support than it was entitled to. 

Gashi was given numerous opportunities by our investigators to explain his actions but failed to do so. 

This was taxpayers’ money and Gashi will now no longer be able to be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for the next decade as a result of his dishonest conduct.

Smart Tyres was incorporated in May 2015 with Gashi as the sole director and shareholder. 

Gashi described the company as providing a full range of both mechanical and electrical repairs. 

Insolvency Service analysis of the Smart Tyres’ accounts revealed it had a turnover of £134,401 for the 2019 calendar year. 

However, Gashi falsely declared on the application form that its income was a quarter of a million pounds. 

Gashi received the £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in October 2020. 

Smart Tyres ceased trading in August 2022 with liabilities of more than £100,000. 

A tyre shop operates from the same address Smart Tyres traded from. Gashi is not a director of this company. 

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme helped small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000, at a low interest rate, guaranteed by the government. 

The loans had to be repaid over six to 10 years, with payments starting one year after companies received the funds. 

Further information 

• Shkelzen Gashi is of Harringay Road, London. His date of birth is 7 January 1972 

• Smart Tyres Services Ltd (company number 09591460) 

• Individuals subject to a disqualification order or undertaking are bound by a range of restrictions  

• Read more about the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and the action the Insolvency Service can take if it finds misconduct 

• Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct 

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