Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for failing to disclose millions of pounds worth of assets in a high-profile bankruptcy swindle.
The tennis ace, 54, was found guilty on four charges at Southwark Crown Court on April 8 2022.
The case was brought in relation to Becker’s bankruptcy dating back to 2017. In June that year, he was declared bankrupt over failure to keep up with repayments on a £3.85m loan from German bank, Arbuthnot Latham.
A pilot scheme in the Netherlands which saw debt recovery specialists brought in to investigate online fraud cases resulted in half the victims getting at least some of their money back.
The trial focused on incidents where people had made a purchase online but never received the goods they paid for. Working with Dutch police, two debt collection organisations were asked to step in to track down the scammers and work on recovering funds.
In total, a quarter of the victims ended up getting all their money back, while another quarter received some of their money. In total, 87% of the fraudsters either paid back the money or went on to face police charges.
Read more: Dutch Trial Shows Potential of Debt Recovery Expertise in Fraud Cases
The Small Business Commissioner (SBC) Liz Barclay fears the UK’s late payment crisis “could get worse before it gets better.”
Speaking to the Federation of Small Business’s First Voice podcast, Ms Barclay conceded that more and more small businesses were suffering as a result of late payments “in the current climate”, and was not optimistic about the situation improving any time soon.
Read more: SBC: Late Payments “Could Get Worse Before They Get Better”
One in four freelancers are thinking about ditching self-employment because of problems getting paid on time, according to new research.
In a survey carried out by payment platform WondaPay, 24% of freelancers said they were considering looking for permanent employment because of persistent problems with late payments.
Read more: Late Payments Forcing Freelancers to Consider Their Futures
