A fraudster in the U.K. who illegally secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan designed to support businesses during the Covid pandemic has been handed a suspended sentence, according to a U.K. Insolvency Service press release. Rian O’Keeffe was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday 30 April. O’Keeffe, of Lisgar Terrace, Hammersmith, is also subject to a three-month curfew and must complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity.

Britain’s construction industry expanded at its fastest pace in 14 months in April, adding to confidence the economy is rebounding from a recession, Bloomberg News reported. The construction purchasing managers’ index jumped to 53 in April, up from 50.2 the previous month, S&P Global said Tuesday. It was well above economists’ expectations of 50.4, with any score above 50 signaling growth. It added to signs that the economy kept expanding in the second quarter after a shallow downturn in the final months of last year.

The American investment firm 777 Partners, whose bid to buy the English Premier League soccer team Everton has been on hold for months amid doubts about the company’s finances, was accused by one of its lenders on Friday of running a yearslong fraud scheme worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the New York Times reported. The accusation came in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in New York by Leadenhall Capital Partners, a London-based asset management company.

The Bank of England’s effort to stimulate the economy during the pandemic is responsible for all £115 billion ($144 billion) of the net losses on quantitative-easing that UK taxpayers will have to cover, analysis by Bloomberg shows. Using the central bank’s latest estimate of the lifetime cost of the program, a Bloomberg analysis indicates that the BOE is on track to lose at least £120 billion on the bonds it bought under QE during Covid in 2020 and 2021. The earlier phase of QE, done during the financial crisis and up to 2016, will end up being marginally profitable.

U.K. retail footfall declined sharply in April on unseasonably wet weather and the earlier Easter timing, pointing to continued struggles for the sector, a monthly report said Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The number of visits to stores—comprising high-street, retail-park and shopping-center data—for the four weeks ended April 27 tumbled 7.2% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the British Retail Consortium and Sensormatic Solutions IQ. Footfall in March fell on year by a less sharp 1.3%, helped as Easter fell in March this year, but April in 2023.

German tennis legend Boris Becker was discharged from bankruptcy court in London after a judge found Wednesday he had done “all that he reasonably could do” to repay creditors tens of millions of pounds, the Associated Press reported. Becker fell far short of repaying his creditors nearly 50 million pounds ($62.5 million) he owed, but Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nicholas Briggs said it would be “perverse” not to end the case given the efforts Becker made.

Everton have called in a leading firm of restructuring and insolvency advisers, the Guardian understands, raising further questions about the proposed takeover of the Premier League club by 777 Partners, the Guardian reported. The move came while the club were believed to be waiting for a further £15m of loans that 777 had pledged to provide Everton with during April, according to one 777 source. When asked about that £15m in loans, a 777 spokesperson said that – after a delay – “the club has been provided with the working capital it needs as of today [Tuesday]”.

The number of English and Welsh companies going bust stabilized in the first quarter after hitting a three-decade high in 2023 following a hit to balance sheets from soaring energy bills and interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Company insolvencies in England and Wales fell 2% from a year ago to 5,759 in the first three months of the year, according to the government’s Insolvency Service. It was down 12% on the previous quarter.

The debt crisis at Thames Water is jeopardizing £100 billion ($125 billion) of potential investment required over the next five years to mend Britain’s crumbling utilities infrastructure, Bloomberg News reported. Water companies have promised to deploy the sum to fix leaky pipes, build new reservoirs and prevent sewage from pouring into the country’s seas and rivers, according to water regulator Ofwat. But investors warn the money may not be readily available if the government forces losses on Thames Water creditors.

The UK’s financial watchdog pushed back against criticism of its plan to name firms it’s investigating at an early stage, which it thinks will boost transparency and deterrence, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Conduct Authority believes the proposals are timely, according to its response to a House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee published on Friday. Firms and consumers benefit from knowing which issues are in the watchdog’s sights, leading to better standards of conduct, it said.