A Devon taxi driver has been ordered to repay more than £60,000 after he “cynically exploited” a Covid loan scheme to buy a flat in Turkey and a pizza oven.
Murat Dogantekin had a confiscation order of £63,790 made against him at Exeter Crown Court on Tuesday 8 September. The order reflects the value of assets identified by Insolvency Service financial investigators as being available to Dogantekin.
Dogantekin, 52, of Mulligan Drive, Exeter, has been given three months to repay the funds. If he fails to do so, he could face a further five years in prison and would still be required to pay back the order in full.
Dogantekin was jailed for two years and seven months in February 2025 after Insolvency Service investigations discovered he had fraudulently secured £100,000 in Bounce Back Loans. He had inflated the turnover of his taxi business by more than £350,000 to secure the two loans of £50,000 each, the maximum allowed under the scheme, in 2020.
Alexander Grierson, Head of Asset Recovery at the Insolvency Service, said: “Bounce Back Loans were designed to support small and medium-sized businesses through the pandemic. They were not handed out to taxi drivers to spend on properties and pizza ovens. Murat Dogantekin cynically exploited the scheme and our investigations ensured he was jailed for his fraudulent actions. The Insolvency Service will continue to pursue Covid fraudsters and use every available power to recover money obtained through criminality.”
Dogantekin secured the two Bounce Back Loans from separate banks in May and June 2020. In his applications, he stated that his annual turnover was £200,000 and £205,000 for two separate self-employed taxi businesses, both in his own name, although he said the second traded as Ola Taxis. He provided no evidence to support these claims, and investigators discovered that the second business was actually named after one of his clients. This was done in an attempt to distinguish it from his first business and make it appear that he was eligible for a second loan when he was not.
Dogantekin had declared earnings of just £16,500 for the tax year ending in April 2020, meaning he overstated his turnover by £388,500 in the combined applications. Had he been honest about his income, he may have been entitled to one loan of just £4,125. His dishonesty meant he received an additional £95,875 he did not deserve.
Financial investigations by the Insolvency Service identified £48,000 of Bounce Back Loan funds were used by Dogantekin to buy a two-bedroomed flat in Turkey. He also purchased a 2017 Peugeot for £2,840 and spent a further £800 on a pizza oven.
Devon Taxi Driver Must Repay £60k After Covid Loan Fraud