In short no. If the firm owes debts to anyone including a bounce back loan or to HMRC then you will need to either start a formal liquidation or administration procedure. You need to involve insolvency professionals - as a director you can’t just walk away.
Obviously this should not have been done and it is likely that both the government , banks and HMRC will be coming after directors that did this - especially if they are now unable to repay their loans. We are however totally confidential and non-judgemental and can almost always help by finding a low cost legal solution.
The UK Government has appointed the Insolvency Service to chase the owners of failed businesses for failing to repay Bounce Back Loans where fraud is suspected. Punishments can be strict because taxpayers’ money has been involved. A director of a limited company who has committed fraud, or another act of misconduct could be: Banned from managing a company for up to 15 years AND Prosecuted under criminal law.
All initial advice is both free and confidential . Further work depends on various factors such the best course of action, size of company, number of creditors etc. Our charges for a “Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation” (CVL) start at as little as £3000 (we can take payment by personal credit card) which is the lowest in the industry.