A former Yorkshire town councillor who tried to swindle more than £440,000 out of the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme in the summer of 2020 has been told he must repay almost £110,000 in the next three months.

When he was jailed for two-and-a-half years in March Mohammed Ikram, a 36-year-old married man, claimed the scam was aimed at paying off debts he had run up operating a care home, but Deputy Circuit Judge Timothy Clayson said the majority of the offending was motivated by greed.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Ikram, a former Keighley town councillor, had made 19 bogus applications for cash from the scheme which had been set up to help struggling hospitality business during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prosecutor Timothy Jacobs said the total claimed for eight different businesses was £443,073, but the court heard that Ikram only had previous links with two of the organisations.

Mohammed Ikram made 19 fraudulent claims under then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak's initiative over four weeks in August and September 2020.

Mr Jacobs said the other six businesses which were either fictitious or Ikram had no connection with them at all.

Ikram was eventually paid out nearly £190,000 relating to eight claims, but after an investigation was launched His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were able to “freeze” and subsequently recover just over £96,000 from bank accounts held by his wife.

When Ikram was jailed in March the judge set down a timetable under the Proceeds of Crime Act and today Ikram was brought from prison for the financial hearing.

Ikram, who it is understood could be released from his sentence in a few weeks time, was said to have benefitted from criminal conduct to the tune of £109,939.64.

Mr Jacobs said the defendant had available assets of £86,000, which was a 50 per cent equity share in an address at Springfield Court, Keighley, and a “tainted gift” of £60,000 which was already subject to a restraint order.

Recorder Tahir Khan KC said he was making a confiscation order against Ikram for the total sum of £109,939.64 and he would have three months to pay that amount or face a further 12 months in prison.

Ikram, who resigned from Keighley Town Council in 2022, had pleaded guilty to 29 fraud charges covering the four-week period in 2020 and Deputy Circuit Judge Timothy Clayson said it had been extensive offending.

“Even if I accept your assertion that some of this money was obtained with a view to covering financial obligations that you had, given the sums involved, it is apparent that the vast majority of this was motivated by greed,” he told Ikram.

The court heard that among the false claims Ikram had made five applications were for a food business which turned out to be a barbers shop.

At his sentence hearing in March barrister Nicholas Worsley, for Ikram, submitted references in support of his client’s previous work in the local community.

He said Ikram was remorseful for what he had done and submitted that it had not been a sophisticated fraud.

“He’s lost his good character,” said Mr Worsley.

“This is known about widely throughout the community and he is a changed man because of it.”

Former Yorkshire councillor jailed for Eat Out To Help Out fraud must repay £111,000