Having successfully applied for a maximum £50,000 bounce back loan which the Boston-based company was no entitled to, the directors were emboldened to dive back in when the government announced the covid recovery loan scheme facility in 2021, a year after the first pandemic lockdown.

The Eel Screen Company Ltd, which was set up in 2015 to install specialist screens to protect eels, has been wound up in the High Court after investigators from the Insolvency Service uncovered evidence of government covid loan abuse.