Zeeshan Ashraf

Introduction

Zeeshan Ashraf is a Birmingham accountant who was jailed for three years and eight months after admitting five counts of fraud against pandemic support schemes, and who was ordered in October 2026 to repay more than £300,000. Ashraf, 46, defrauded the Eat Out to Help Out, Bounce Back Loan and Covid Job Retention schemes of £268,102 between April 2020 and April 2021 and attempted to claim a further £52,733, using his accountancy company A-Z Certified Accountants Limited and, in the job retention claims, false or unauthorised applications made on behalf of his own business clients. On 13 October 2026 he was handed a confiscation order of £307,690 at Birmingham Crown Court.

Background Information

Ashraf used A-Z Certified Accountants Limited to secure three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans from separate banks in 2020, although businesses were entitled to only one. He claimed the company had turnovers of between £215,000 and £244,000 when its actual turnover was just £8,000, allowing him to extract the maximum from each application, and spent the £150,000 he secured on lifestyle purposes, property investments and the repayment of personal loans. He also fraudulently received £91,174 through the Covid Job Retention Scheme after making multiple false or unauthorised applications to HM Revenue and Customs on behalf of his business clients, with a further £38,082 of unsuccessful claims, and stole £26,928 from the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme by submitting numerous claims on behalf of hospitality companies that either did not exist or did not operate in the restaurant trade, with another £14,651 attempted and refused.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Ashraf admitted five counts of fraud and was jailed for three years and eight months at Birmingham Crown Court in February 2025. On 13 October 2026 the same court made a confiscation order against him for £307,690, giving him three months to pay or face a further two and a half years in prison — and still owe the full amount.

The confiscation figure exceeds the £268,102 he fraudulently obtained because it includes an uplift reflecting changes in the value of money since 2020, and it would have been higher still had Ashraf not previously repaid around £33,000 of the Bounce Back Loans. The original criminal investigations were carried out by HMRC and investigators who are now part of the Insolvency Service; the confiscation proceedings were conducted jointly by HMRC and the Insolvency Service, with the case prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service. Alexander Grierson, Head of Asset Recovery at the Insolvency Service, said Ashraf “stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from schemes designed to support businesses during the pandemic”, that he “has served time in prison for his crimes and has now been ordered to pay back more than £300,000”, and that the case should send “a clear message to fraudsters: a conviction and prison sentence do not necessarily mark the end of enforcement action”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The Insolvency Service publicised the confiscation as a warning that enforcement continues after conviction, with Grierson adding: “We will pursue the proceeds of crime wherever we can.” The case sits at the more serious end of the agency’s Covid-fraud caseload — a professional accountant who exploited not only the loan scheme three times over, but the tax authority’s job retention scheme through claims made in the names of clients, and a dining-discount scheme through claims for restaurants that never existed.

Current Status

Ashraf has been given three months to pay the £307,690 confiscation order. If he fails to pay, he could face a further two and a half years in prison, and the debt would not be extinguished — he would still owe the full amount. He is also under the three-year-and-eight-month prison term imposed at the same court in February 2025 after he admitted the five fraud counts.

Impact on Their Career/Life

An accountant’s conviction for five counts of fraud is a professional ending as much as a criminal one: Ashraf’s own firm was the instrument of the Bounce Back Loan fraud, and the job retention fraud was committed through claims made on behalf of clients, dragging his book of business into the criminal record. He has served a prison sentence, lost hundreds of thousands of pounds to a confiscation order that pursues him regardless, and remains liable for the full £307,690 even if he defaults. The Insolvency Service’s message on the case — that a conviction and prison sentence “do not necessarily mark the end of enforcement action” — now applies to him directly.

Sources

• The Insolvency Service, “Jailed Birmingham accountant ordered to repay more than £300,000 after targeting Covid support schemes” — source