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So imagine the situation. You were a Border Force official in May, June last year.

There are very few people going abroad still. Someone comes up to your security station.

They put a suitcase through the scanner, but you see something on the machine that looks very odd.

And you open it up and suddenly you find large wads of cash inside.

And we begin here in the United Kingdom and reports that Border officials

detained people carrying suitcases of cash from the government's COVID loan scheme.

That's according to a new investigation by the Times newspaper.

There were very few checks in the bank so they would then go off and get 50 grand in their

account from a bank within 24 or 48 hours. They then try and take that money out and cash

from various cash registries, put that all in their suitcase and then attempt to leave the country.

From people napped fleeing the country with suitcases full of bank notes,

to a former public landlord accused of caching his loan and sending it to the terrorist group

ISIS, case after case is emerging of how COVID money may have been misused.

A whole lot of cash was given out in a hurry. Most of it went to help out legitimate businesses

whether the pandemic, but not all. And now questions are being raised about where it all went.

So what went wrong and is the government doing enough to fix it?

You're listening to stories of our times at the Times and the Sunday Times.

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