THE government has defended itself against claims from a St Aubin restaurant owner, who said he was forced to shut down his business after being owed £85,000.
Gavin Roberts, owner of Shinzo, said his restaurant would still be open if it was paid the money he believes it is owed by the government.
However, the government has said that Shinzo has already received £229,000 from its Covid support schemes and any outstanding claims have been settled.
Earlier this week, Mr Roberts announced that Shinzo, which opened in 2020 and specialised in sushi, steak and cocktails, would close owing to ‘the global pandemic over the last few years and lack of financial support’.
He said: ‘In total we are owed £85,000 from the government. If we had this we would still be open.
‘We are still owed Co-Funded Payroll money from October, but have been told we will not get it due to being closed – yet we were open in October, the month we are claiming for,’ he said.
‘We were also told we would only get the minimal amount of support as part of the Fixed Costs scheme.
‘All of this has been a constant barrier to trying to grow the business,’ he added.
Mr Roberts said they were also given a repayment demand from the government for £2,500 as part of the co-funded scheme.
Responding to these claims, Ian Burns, director general for Customer and Local Services, said: ‘To date the business in question has received funds in the region £229,000 from the government’s Covid business support schemes.
‘Any outstanding claims for a small fraction of the overall total have now been settled after the correct supporting evidence was recently provided by the proprietor.’
He added: ‘Government has a responsibility to ensure funds are properly distributed and officers have rightly looked into whether they should still be making the payment or not given the announcement of closure. However, this has not affected their claim.
‘The Co-Funded Payroll Scheme was government’s primary response to the economic consequences of Covid-19 during 2021.
‘It has now provided more than £140 million of support to businesses since its inception in March 2020 supporting 15,000 workers across 4,000 businesses.’
