A former Auckland chartered accountant has been given community detention after fraudulently pocketing almost $95,000 through the Small Business Cashflow loan scheme.

Howard Kane Taylor was sentenced in the Auckland District Court last week after admitting eight charges earlier this year, days before his trial was due to start.

Between May 28, 2020, and June 29, 2020, Taylor made eight Small Business Cashflow (SBC) loan applications each requesting an amount of $11,800 for various businesses totalling $94,400.

The scheme was introduced in April 2020 to help small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Inland Revenue began an investigation in August 2020 and found none of the money was paid into the accounts of the companies Taylor had made applications for.

Instead, the money went into Taylor’s accounts.

Taylor was a registered Tax Agent with Inland Revenue at the time of the offending but was removed from the list in November 2022.

He was sentenced to six months’ community detention and ordered to complete 120 hours of community work.

The judge allowed sentence discounts for his charity work, repaying the loans and his poor health.

All of the SBC loans have been repaid to Inland Revenue.

Last year, Upper Hutt man Shane Douglas McNally was jailed for three years and 11 months for his part in fraudulently receiving more than $82,000 in Covid support.

McNally and co-accused Brendon Blair McBride made 21 SBC applications under 19 separate identities. Seven of those applications were accepted.

The pair’s offending came to light when Inland Revenue found both were receiving the unemployment benefit and neither met the criteria for a SBC loan.

In May, the tax agency said more than 129,000 businesses received loans totalling $2.4 billion.

About half (64,000) of people had repaid their loan in full, with $853m still owing.

Inland Revenue said it was actively taking steps to recover money from the about 14,300 customers whose loans are in default, owing just over $242m.