Matthew Temple, 44, of North Shields, Tyneside, known as Mehdi Ghaneh-Keisami when the offences were committed, obtained three £50,000 bounce back loans for Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited over the course of a little over a month during the pandemic, despite businesses being entitled to only one covid loan.

Temple has now been jailed for two years when he appeared at Newcastle Crown Court on 23 October after admitting three counts of fraud by false representation last month.

Pizza Cottage in Whitley Bay operated a pizza takeaway business and was incorporated in June 2016 with Temple as its sole director and had three staff according to last micro accounts filing at Companies House.