A company director who was banned from running a business fraudulently obtained £300,000 in Covid support loans and spent the money on family holidays, private school fees and personal shopping, the Daily Mail reports.Steven Brooks, 40, was sentenced to three years in jail after securing six Bounce Back loans between May and October 2020 using his wife Rhea Brooks’ name without her knowledge.The court heard that Brooks was disqualified from acting as a company director in 2010. Despite the ban, he applied for loans involving five different companies and falsely declared his turnover to obtain the funds.Prosecutor Nick Bonehill said the loan applications were fraudulent and that Brooks had dishonestly misrepresented the companies’ finances to gain government-backed support.Instead of using the money for legitimate business purposes, Brooks spent large sums on personal expenses. The money paid for family trips to Disneyland and Tenerife, almost £7,000 in private school fees for his daughter at an independent school in Devon and a new Audi for his wife.The court also heard she spent the money on flowers, paint for the rental property and purchases from retailer Baux Avenue.Judge Nathaniel Rudolph described Brooks’s actions as “grossly dishonest”, saying there was “not much room for mercy” in the case.According to the Insolvency Service, as cited by the newspaper, less than £7,500 of the £300,000 obtained through fraudulent loans has been repaid.The Bounce Back Loan Scheme was launched to help businesses affected by lockdown restrictions and economic disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.