‘Eat Out to Help Out’ investigation continues

LONDON: Papa John’s has said that it’s investigating whether it’s rules were broken by a Papa John's franchisee who has been accused of making around £250,000 through the UK government’s Eat Out to Help Out (EOHO) scheme.

Raheel Choudhary has strongly denied allegations by a local newspaper that he allegedly instructed staff to record thousands of fake ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ entries while the government scheme was running – funded by the taxpayers. He has maintained that he didn’t commit any offence and that he took part in the UK government’s scheme following all rules and regulations.

A spokesman of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said it will always protect taxpayers' money and will not hesitate to act against those who attempt to break the rules.

The HMRC made a general statement and didn’t make any specific comments and its spokesman said that the HMRC would always protect public money.

Papa John's GB Ltd has said it was investigating the allegations.

"We will be extremely concerned and disappointed if they prove to be true. All of Papa John's UK stores are run by franchisees and we made it very clear to all franchisees that we felt it unlikely that they would be eligible to participate in Eat Out To Help Out (EOTHO)," a spokesman said.

"It is important that our investigation is completed fully before drawing any conclusions, but if any franchisee participated improperly in EOTHO, they will have been in breach of their franchise agreement with us, and we will require them to make things right."

Raheel Choudhary, British Pakistani businessman described a success story, employs around 800 people in his 61 Papa John’s branches across the UK. After the allegations were published in the Mail newspaper, Papa John's said it has launched a probe into the allegations over the discount deal. It has been alleged that Raheel Choudhary’s most restaurants were takeaway or delivery only and there were no seating arrangements available.

A whistleblower told the paper originally that 13 orders were allegedly processed in under a minute at the Tunbridge Wells branch; despite staff being told it was forbidden to eat in the store, which has no tables. According to the whistleblower’s allegation, Choudhary had instructed his staff to record payments made by "phantom covers" as voucher payments.

He has denied all the allegations of fraud and said: "We are confident that we were fully compliant with the criteria set by the government."

The paper alleged that most of Raheel Choudhary’s restaurants were not eligible for the offer – which required diners to eat in – because they were collection and delivery only and that Mr Choudhary promised his managers bonuses for putting in large numbers of the fake orders.

Raheel Choudhary, franchisee Papa John’s, said in a statement to this reporter, “Like so many industries this year, hospitality has been hit hard by coronavirus restrictions. Of my 61 franchises, 40 have seating capacity and we implemented the ‘Eat Out to Help Out Scheme’ in all of those 40 stores from Monday to Wednesday throughout August. All customers who benefited from the scheme ate in store and we are confident that we were fully compliant with the criteria set by the UK government.

He added, “When the government's scheme ended, we followed up with our own discount offer in September. We are pleased that customers have been able to take advantage of these opportunities to make savings at a difficult time, and we are determined to continue offering customers the best deals possible”.

He said that additional seating was added to 10 of the venues throughout August to support demand for the Eat Out scheme. He explained that the paper published false information as value of the Eat Out claim vouchers was £185,015, not £250,000 equating to 32 claims per day for each of the participating stores. He said that the paper focused on his Tunbridge Wells restaurant where total claim for 13 days was £6825.00 (daily average value of £525.00) with additional seating placed in adjacent unit in addition to waiting bench in main store 1500 Sq feet.”