The estimate by HM Revenue & Customs this week that up to £3.5 billion of furlough money may have been fraudulently or mistakenly claimed has set the nerves of corporate lawyers a-jangle. Tax officials have already identified 27,000 employers making suspicious-looking claims. The first arrest has been made. It won’t be the last. This has the potential to be a considerable scandal.
The scale of the free money on offer (£31 billion paid out by July 31 and climbing), the haste with which the scheme was hatched and the desperation of business bosses who needed that cash lifeline means that there is bound to have been a fair amount of sharp practice.
Anecdotally, it sounds bad. In the pub, the stories are legion: employers making
