Woman invented business to claim Covid loan then sent money to Poland
Source: gov.uk (2025-06-09)

Jagoda Rubaszko guilty of fraud after inventing a business to apply for a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan which she then sent to bank accounts in Poland

Rubaszko invented a business to get a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan – which was paid out to five bank accounts in Poland

She told Insolvency Service investigators a man called Daniel told her how to apply for the loan – but provided no evidence he exists

Sentenced to six-month curfew and 18-month suspended sentence

A woman who pretended to run a business to secure a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan has been sentenced for fraud following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

Jagoda Rubaszko, 37, of Old Ruislip Road, Northolt, invented an administrative service business which she falsely claimed had a turnover of £210,000.

In reality, she had no business – and the £50,000 loan she received was sent to five separate bank accounts in Poland.

Rubaszko told investigators she had been contacted by a man called Daniel who told her how to apply for the loan, and to declare herself bankrupt to avoid having to repay it.

Rubaszko was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for 21 months, for fraud by misrepresentation at Isleworth Crown Court on 5 June 2025.

She will be tagged and under curfew between 7.30pm and 6am every day for six months, and must complete 175 hours of unpaid work.

The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Mark Stephens, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

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.

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.

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.

Rubaszko applied to a bank for a Covid Bounce Back Loan on 26 April 2021, which was approved on 28 April 2021 and paid into her bank account.

In the application, she claimed she had been operating a business since 1 March 2020 and had a turnover of £210,000. But investigations into Rubaszko’s finances showed her tax returns were no higher than £15,100 each year between 2019 and 2021.

In a prepared statement, Rubaszko claimed to have been contacted by a man called Daniel, who told her how to apply for the loan, and to declare herself bankrupt to avoid repaying it.

But Rubaszko admitted she had never met Daniel, even though she said she paid him a £17,500 commission for his ‘help’ after receiving the £50,000.

Her bank records showed no such payment was made – instead, 22 smaller payments up to £11,690 were made to five individual bank accounts in Poland over a two-month period.

After declaring herself bankrupt, Rubaszko was subject to a 10-year Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertaking (BRU) on 12 May 2023. The BRU prevents her from managing a limited company until 2033.

Further information

Jagoda Rubaszko is of Old Ruislip Road, Northolt. Her date of birth is 18 September 1987.

Individuals subject to a disqualification order or undertaking are bound by a range of restrictions (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corporate-insolvency-effect-of-a-disqualification-order)

Read more about the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and the action the Insolvency Service can take if it finds misconduct (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fact-sheet-bounce-back-loans/fact-sheet-bounce-back-loans#if-we-find-misconduct)

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service)