Serial criminal with ‘most extreme addiction to crack cocaine’ his barrister had ever seen secured £50,000 Rishi Sunak Covid bounceback loan that he blew on drugs
- A well-known criminal spent a £50,000 Covid business loan all on crack cocaine
- Louis Maxwell, 35, from Gwent, Wales, was sentenced to 46 months in prison
- He was jailed for drugs charges, burglary, dangerous driving and failing to stop
A well-known criminal has been jailed for nearly four years after blowing a £50,000 Covid bounceback loan all on drugs before being arrested in a high-speed car chase.
Serial crook Louis Maxwell, 35, claimed the money through Rishi Sunak’s Covid Bounceback scheme to help his tow-truck business survive through lockdown.
Maxwell, who was described in court as having an ‘extreme’ crack cocaine addiction, used less than half of the money to buy a new truck for £22,000 and spent the rest on Class A drugs.
He later sold the truck and used cash from the sale to buy more drugs.
Louis Maxwell, 35, blew a £50,000 loan meant to help businesses bounce back from Covid on crack cocaine to help fuel his ‘extreme’ addiction
Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Bounce Back Loan scheme saw fraudsters steal up to £5billion from the tax payer due to inadequate anti-fraud checks
What was the Government’s coronavirus Bounce Back Loan scheme?
Small companies were able to claim money from the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).
BBLS provided up to £50,000 to small firms, with most cash going to companies with fewer than ten employees.
The pressures the Government faced to rapidly hand out Covid loans meant that banks did not carry out some standard checks before they granted the loans.
Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £100million fund for a taskforce of 1,000 investigators in HM Revenue & Customs to crack down on the misuse of the furlough and self-employment income support schemes.
What did the National Audit Office find?
The spending watchdog found that fraudsters may have stolen £3.5billion through the scheme.
While the Government believes up to £4.9billion may have been lost to fraudulent loans.
The NAO found that the Government had acted too slowly to implement basic anti-fraud measures and that these checks were ‘inadequate’.
His barrister Karl Williams described as ‘the most extreme addiction to crack cocaine that I’ve ever come across’.
He told Cardiff Crown Court: ‘The £50,000 government loan was spent on drugs.’
Maxwell owned the Mr Tow Recovery Logistics business in Newport, Gwent, using a Jeep Cherokee and trailer – despite not being legally allowed to drive himself.
Cardiff Crown Court heard he led police on a high-speed chase through Newport city centre and was only stopped when his tyres were shredded by a stinger device.
Police found crack cocaine on him.
Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, said: ‘He told officers he was a “crackhead” and that the drugs were for his own personal use.’
Maxwell, of Newport, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine between October 24, 2020 and February 4, 2021.
He also admitted burglary, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, failing to stop, failing to provide a specimen, driving without insurance and possession of cocaine.
Maxwell had 17 previous convictions for 52 offences which included burglary and dangerous driving.
Judge Recorder David Elias QC, jailed Maxwell for 46 months.
He was banned from driving for 51 months and ordered to sit an extended retest.
Maxwell had previously been mocked for looking like Beaker from the muppets after police posted his mugshot while he was wanted over a driving offence.
Police published Maxwell’s mugshot onto their Facebook page after he led them on a high speed chase in 2017.
But the site was quickly taken over by wannabe comedians having a laugh at his unkempt curly haircut and bleary-eyed appearance.
Cops eventually traced Maxwell and arrested him, but not before he was ruthlessly compared to Bert from Sesame Street and Beaker from the Muppets online.
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