Casimiro Dias

Introduction

Casimiro Claudio Dias is a company director whose firm, Asesoria Y Traducciones Ltd (“Asesoria”), a business offering translation and advice services incorporated on 11 November 2019, obtained a Government-backed Bounce Back Loan of £50,000 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that the Insolvency Service later found it was never entitled to. Dias applied for the loan on 30 June 2020, providing information that, he knew or ought to have known, was inaccurate regarding the company’s turnover. For that conduct he was disqualified from acting as a company director for 9 years, his disqualification order starting on 18 August 2026.

Background Information

The Bounce Back Loan scheme was a government support programme introduced during the pandemic under which lenders could provide loans of between £2,000 and £50,000, subject to a maximum of up to 25% of a business’s turnover in the calendar year 2019 — or, for businesses established after 1 January 2019, its estimated annual turnover from the date the business started. Asesoria was incorporated on 11 November 2019 and so fell to be assessed on estimated turnover. The company opened a business bank account in November 2019, but its first transaction on the account was not until 11 February 2020, and the only income into the account prior to the loan application was £1,220. Bank statements show incoming funds totalling £3,796.91 from account opening to 30 December 2020, and company accounts made up to 30 November 2020 show a turnover of £3,869.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Director disqualified for 9 years over a Bounce Back Loan the company was never entitled to. The disqualification order starts on 18 August 2026.

On 30 June 2020 Dias applied for a Bounce Back Loan of £50,000 for Asesoria, stating in the application that the company’s estimated turnover was £219,460. The figure mattered because the scheme capped lending at 25% of turnover: a company genuinely turning over sums in the range the bank account and later accounts reveal would have qualified for only a fraction of £50,000, while a stated estimated turnover of £219,460 carried him to the scheme’s ceiling. The Insolvency Service’s investigation found no explanation or evidence had been provided demonstrating that Asesoria had any prospect of achieving turnover at the level stated in the application. Its conclusion was that Dias obtained BBL funding totalling £50,000 to which the company was not entitled, by providing information that he knew or ought to have known was inaccurate regarding its turnover. The mismatch between the declared figure and the company’s actual finances was stark: accounts made up to 30 November 2020 record turnover of £3,869 — roughly a fiftieth of the figure put to the lender — against total incoming funds of under £3,800 in the account’s first year.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The Insolvency Service’s enforcement action resulted in a 9-year disqualification, placing Dias under a legal ban from directly or indirectly taking part in the promotion, formation or management of a company until 2035 without the permission of the court. The loan itself remained largely undigested: at Asesoria’s liquidation date, £46,409 of the £50,000 Bounce Back Loan remained outstanding — public money advanced on a turnover figure the registrar’s records could not support. Bounce Back Loan abuse has been a priority for Insolvency Service enforcement precisely because the scheme was designed to get money to genuine small businesses quickly and with minimal checks, and misstating turnover struck directly at the basis on which that money was released. The disqualification register entry recording his conduct was published with the standard notice that the information was correct as at 25 August 2026.

Current Status

Dias is subject to an active 9-year disqualification that began on 18 August 2026 and, left unchallenged, runs to August 2035. During that period he may not act as a director of, or be involved in the management of, any company registered in the UK without leave of the court, and breach of a disqualification order is itself a criminal offence. The Insolvency Service’s register entry for his case stands as published, recording the conduct findings in full and noting that £46,409 of the loan was still outstanding at liquidation. No appeal against the order and no separate criminal proceedings arising from the loan are recorded on the register.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The disqualification removes Dias from company directorship for the better part of a decade, spanning what would otherwise be prime working years, and does so on findings that he knowingly or recklessly misstated his company’s finances to obtain pandemic support. The company he built the claim around, Asesoria Y Traducciones Ltd, went into liquidation with the great bulk of the loan unpaid, leaving the disqualification as the public consequence of a £46,409 shortfall borne by the public purse. His case sits within the wider body of Insolvency Service action against Bounce Back Loan misuse, in which directors who inflated turnover figures on applications have faced multi-year bans of exactly this scale. For a director of a small translation and advice business, a 9-year ban amounts to a professional ending: the register entry recording the finding is public and permanent.

Sources

• Insolvency Service, “Disqualified Director Details: Casimiro Claudio Dias” — source