By Iain Withers
The value of suspected fraud in securing government-backed COVID-19 emergency loans has increased by 43% to 1.69 billion pounds ($2.11 billion), British government figures published on Thursday showed.
Banks doled out around 77 billion pounds ($96 billion) of government-backed finance to help struggling companies cope in COVID-19 lockdowns, but levels of potential fraud across the hastily put-together schemes have attracted scrutiny.