A former director of the hospitality group behind the Moe’s Grill stable of restaurants has been banned from running a company for 14 years over her misuse of Covid-19 bounce back loans.
The sanction against Jacqueline Clarke (63) of The Mill, Six Mile Water Mill in Co Antrim, is one of the longest ever disqualifications issued by the High Court in Northern Ireland.
The maximum penalty under the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 is 15 years.
The order was made in respect of her conduct as director of five companies, which traded in licensed restaurants, take-away food shops and mobile food stands.
They included: DEC (NI) Ltd, DJD (NI) Ltd, The Parkhall Chippy (NI) Limited, DRC (NI) Ltd and Balloo Investments (NI) Ltd.
Jacqueline Clarke was the sole director of all five companies, which entered liquidation proceedings in September 2022 owing just over £350,000 to creditors.
It’s understood some of the companies were used as legal entities for restaurants in the Moe’s hospitality group, which collapsed between 2022 and 2024.
Originally launched by the late Denny Clarke, who passed away in 2018, the hospitality business had been run by his wife and son in recent years.
At its peak, the group included Moe’s Grill restaurants in Antrim, Banbridge and Magherafelt.
The family also operated Jake’s Cocktail Bar and Redz in Antrim, which later rebranded as Fresh Food Hall.
A statement issued by the Department for the Economy (DfE) said Jacqueline Clarke had obtained bounce back loans via four of the companies and diverted the funds into Balloo Investments (NI) Ltd, which was effectively a holding company for the hospitality group.
The bounce back loan (BBL) scheme was launched by the UK Government in May 2020 to help get cash to small businesses fast to prevent their collapse during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
Capped at £50,000, the loans were issued by banks and 100% guaranteed by the UK Government.
While it succeeded in distributing funds quickly, the UK’s National Audit Office later concluded the scheme was highly susceptible to abuse.
Subsequent investigations have led to dozens of directorship bans in Northern Ireland alone.
DfE said Ms Clarke knew when applying for a BBL for DEC (NI) Ltd, that it was not trading at the time.
She also received a £50,000 BBL for DJD (NI) Ltd, and obtained an additional £33,018 by stating the annual turnover was £225,000, when it was just under £68,000.
DfE further said she provided “a false and misleading declaration” within her application for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan with Funding Circle.
In total, DfE accepted 11 disqualification undertakings and the court made four disqualification orders in the financial year commencing April 1 2025.