The Strictly star has not paid again a 50,000 Covid bounce again mortgage – regardless of boasting he turned over “tens of millions” through the pandemic.

One in every of Strictly Come Dancing contestant Thomas Skinner’s firms has did not repay a £50,000 Covid bounce again mortgage – regardless of the celeb bragging about producing “tens of millions” all through the pandemic.

The truth star finds himself embroiled in recent controversy relating to his enterprise dealings after it emerged one enterprise secured the taxpayer-funded Authorities mortgage in 2020. Half a decade later, there stays no proof that the corporate – the Fluffy Pillow Firm – which names Skinner as its solely director – has ever settled the debt.

This comes regardless of Skinner subsequently claiming how that enterprise – alongside a second enterprise, Bosh Beds – each capitalised particularly through the UK pandemic. He even boasts the latter enterprise managed to “trip a wave on the again of Covid.”

The disclosures symbolize one more setback for the credibility of the BBC programme, which continues to reel following a number of turbulent years. They may even heap extra strain on Strictly executives to justify their choice to recruit Skinner, who final week confessed to being untrue to his partner, reviews the Mirror.

In his autobiography, he writes concerning the pillow enterprise: “The corporate grew shortly after I completed The Apprentice and did very nicely because of large demand through the pandemic when everybody had cash to spare and loads of time to spend in mattress.”

He alleged Bosh Beds, which acquired official registration months afterwards in October 2020, was “taking £130,000 pound every week in gross sales, by 2021, and had 14 workers.

He stated: “Everybody’s obtained a great deal of cash. We was cleansing up. It was simple. It was really easy I put a (social media) submit up, it might take £30 grand value of orders.”

He added: “I used to be using a wave on the again of Covid… Million-pound offers had been the norm each couple of months. It was insane.”

Later, in December 2021, Skinner boasted: “Immediately I’ve turnt over £1.8 million pound in 1 12 months with BOSH BEDS!”

The Authorities mortgage scheme was designed to supply help to small companies that had been “adversely affected” by Covid.

The scheme was self-certified that means the lender didn’t test the applicant’s monetary data upfront. As a substitute, the applicant declares it themselves. This methodology was designed to speed up the appliance course of and distribute cash extra shortly through the disaster.

Skinner has beforehand claimed The Fluffy Pillow Firm was broken by the Covid lockdown in March 2020 after gross sales had initially rocketed following his look on the Apprentice in 2019.

He stated: “I would just moved to this beautiful home. I would purchased an enormous automotive… I needed to discover £1000 a month to pay for that on finance. And since it was going so nicely, and all sudden it stopped useless, I assumed. And I’ve obtained a child on the way in which I assumed, what am I gonna do?”

Throughout lockdown the agency switched to flogging mattresses as an alternative, with Skinner insisting that he might transport them nationwide as they had been classed as “important.”

When the Covid mortgage scheme launched in Could 2020, he defined how the shift from promoting pillows to mattresses was thriving.

He stated: “Via the entire first lockdown, we labored seven days every week and continuous, and since there have been no automobiles round, we had been getting type of 20 to 30 deliveries on the day, going everywhere in the nation, dropping off mattresses. And it was sensible. And I assumed, ‘wow, we have now critically obtained a enterprise right here.

“And we began actually cracking on and getting in entrance. We had no competitors. We had been fortunate. And that’s after I’m actually beginning to earn my cash.”

The Fluffy Pillow Firm’s official Instagram account reveals Skinner transporting mattresses, beds and pillows all through 2020 proper as much as December.

Ultimately The Fluffy Pillow Firm sought the utmost mortgage of £50,000. To qualify, Skinner was required to self-declare his enterprise had beforehand been producing £200,000 yearly.

The mortgage circumstances stipulate the corporate ought to have begun repaying inside 12 months however there is no such thing as a proof of any cost being made. The £50,000 stays listed as excellent in monetary information from each 2021 and 2022. Corporations Home has issued 4 notices to liquidate the agency with the excellent debt.

Two strike-offs had been discontinued, presumably for administrative causes, and two have been suspended due to an objection. We requested Skinner whether or not that was as a result of excellent mortgage however Skinner has declined to touch upon the rationale.

Skinner has given contradictory accounts relating to when The Fluffy Pillow firm ceased operations. Though social media posts present Skinner and his workforce – carrying The Fluffy Pillow uniforms – making deliveries proper as much as December 2020, he claimed in a single interview that the enterprise collapsed when lockdown started in March 2020.

When questioned on a podcast about whether or not he had “actually misplaced your pillow enterprise in a single day,” he responded: “Sure….I had been taking some huge cash. I used to be in a state.”

Nonetheless, in a separate interview he acknowledged: “I saved all the fellows on and saved attempting to maintain the whole lot going.”

A consultant for Skinner has failed to reply to enquiries about when the corporate ceased buying and selling, neither is it obvious why Skinner persistently mentions Fluffy Pillows having workers while the agency’s micro-accounts point out the enterprise employed only one individual on common.

Intriguingly, in Skinner’s 2023 autobiography he implied he hadn’t secured any sort of mortgage.

He wrote: “Some individuals loved sitting at residence getting their furlough cash however that wasn’t for me. I might have taken a enterprise mortgage and stayed at residence baking and doing Joe Wicks exercises, and there was nothing unsuitable with that.

“However Covid was one other blind-pour second in my life. After lockdown the enterprise continued to do nicely. I took on workers, opened retail models and grew.”

Skinner subsequently stepped down as a director of Bosh Beds in November 2022.

Roughly 114,000 companies have collapsed while holding Covid loans, in keeping with official statistics.

Final week ministers unveiled a voluntary compensation window, dubbed a “Covid compensation amnesty” working till December 2025.

It gives administrators the possibility to repay cash from Covid help schemes, together with the bounce again loans, with out fast scrutiny.