Craig Morris, 43, from Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, has been jailed for three years and nine months at Northampton Crown Court for his role in a $10.7m (£8m) fraud across the US which saw millions stolen from bogus PPE deals during the pandemic.

Northampton Crown Court heard that Morris worked for ringleader Jogesh Bhandari, 59, of Loughborough, who owned and controlled a business called Banton International Limited, which was used to perpetrate a series of sham PPE deals deceiving US companies.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Morris ‘made representations on behalf of the company in numerous fraudulent deals in 2020 and 2021’.

Companies House records show Bhandari was a director of Banton International Limited, which was incorporated in April 2020 at the height of the pandemic.