Matthew Temple

Introduction

Matthew Temple is a Tyneside pizza business operator who was jailed for two years after fraudulently obtaining £150,000 in Covid support loans for a single business and spending much of the money on gambling. Temple, 44 — known as Mehdi Ghaneh-Keisami when the offences were committed — secured three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans for Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited, which traded as Pizza Cottage on East Parade in Whitley Bay, despite businesses being entitled to only one loan under the scheme. The Insolvency Service established that more than £131,000 of the £150,000 was not used wholly for business purposes, including money spent on gambling and children’s toys.

Background Information

Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited, company number 10247689, was incorporated in June 2016 with Temple as its sole director. The Bounce Back Loan scheme, launched at the height of the pandemic, allowed each business a single government-guaranteed loan based on the director’s self-declared turnover. Temple secured the first £50,000 in May 2020, applied for a second just three days later while falsely declaring it was the company’s only application, and obtained a third the following month after again falsely declaring it was the sole one — all three loans landed within a little over a month. He had already been disqualified as a company director for 12 years in 2024 following civil investigations into his conduct by the Insolvency Service.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Temple pleaded guilty at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court in September 2026 to three counts of fraud by false representation and was jailed for two years at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday 23 October 2026. The Insolvency Service had established that £131,419 of the £150,000 was not spent wholly for business purposes, with company funds going on gambling and even children’s toys.

The gambling was rapid and repeated: £11,090 went through 46 gambling transactions from one of Pizza Cottage’s business accounts in less than two weeks in July 2020. Investigators also found £264 spent on children’s toys and play equipment on 7 May 2020, the day after the first £50,000 loan was paid into the company’s account. When questioned about taking a second loan despite already having received one, Temple told investigators: “I know it was my fault, I shouldn’t… I should tell them it was my second, but they didn’t check it either.” David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Temple “exploited a taxpayer-backed scheme designed to help businesses through the pandemic by obtaining three £50,000 loans when his company was entitled to only one”, adding that “company funds were then spent on gambling and even children’s toys and play equipment, despite Temple declaring the money would be used for the benefit of his business”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case was publicised by the Insolvency Service as an example of its pursuit of Covid-loan fraud well after the pandemic lending window closed, and it compounded a sanction Temple was already serving: the 12-year director disqualification imposed in 2024 after the agency’s civil investigation. Snasdell’s statement framed the sentence as only part of the outcome — “Temple is now beginning a two-year prison sentence, but our work does not stop at securing a conviction” — with the agency also seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds and return them to the public purse.

Current Status

Temple is beginning a two-year prison sentence imposed at Newcastle Crown Court on 23 October 2026, having pleaded guilty the previous month to three counts of fraud by false representation. The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, so further financial recovery action may follow the sentence. His disqualification as a company director, imposed for 12 years in 2024, remains in force independently of the criminal case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Temple’s record as a company director is now terminated twice over: first by the civil disqualification in 2024, then by a criminal conviction and prison sentence in 2026 for the same pattern of conduct. The published findings tie his name permanently to a fraud in which a pandemic loan scheme for struggling businesses was treated as a personal fund — money declared for the benefit of the business but directed to gambling within days — and his company, publicly named in the government’s announcement, carries the same record.

Sources

• The Insolvency Service, “Tyneside pizza boss jailed after gambling with money from £150,000 Covid loan fraud” — source