Tyneside pizza boss jailed after gambling with money from £150,000 Covid loan fraud
What was announced
Fraudster obtained three Bounce Back Loans when businesses were only allowed one
Key points, in the publisher's words
- Matthew Temple obtained three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans for the same Whitley Bay pizza business
- More than £131,000 of the £150,000 was not used wholly for business purposes, including money spent on gambling and children’s toys
- Temple was jailed for two years after admitting three fraud offences
Figures in this announcement
Each line is quoted from the original. Figures are as the publisher stated them on the day.
- “Matthew Temple obtained three £50,000 Bounce Back Loans for Pizza Cottage (Whitley Bay) Limited, which traded as Pizza Cottage on East Parade in Whitley Bay.”
- “David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: Matthew Temple exploited a taxpayer-backed scheme designed to help businesses through the pandemic by obtaining three £50,000 loans when his company was entitled to only one.”
- “Temple secured the first £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in May 2020, shortly after the scheme launched.”
- “Just three days later, he applied for a second £50,000 loan, falsely declaring that it was the company’s only application under the scheme.”
- “Temple secured a third £50,000 loan the following month after again falsely declaring that it was the company’s only Bounce Back Loan application.”
- “However, the Insolvency Service established that £131,419 of the £150,000 was not spent wholly for business purposes.”
Who and where
UK bodies of power
- The Insolvency Service (executive agency) · more news
Where this sits in the 10 levels of power
Topics, as GOV.UK files them: Business and industry.
Receipt
- Original: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tyneside-pizza-boss-jailed-after-gambling-with-money-from-150000-covid-loan-fraud
- Published 2026-10-26 09:35:37 UTC
- Read by this site 2026-10-26 09:45:14 UTC from GOV.UK
- Saved copy: receipt 2203, with its SHA-256 fingerprint
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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