Video game composer Peter Connelly, who worked on the Tomb Raider series during his time at Core Design, has been jailed after fraudulently obtaining a second Covid Bounce Back Loan via his company, Peter Connelly Limited.
Connelly was accused of exaggerating his company’s turnover to obtain a second 'Bounce Back Loan' of £37,500 in 2020. Only a single loan should have been applied for, yet Connelly had previously been successful in securing one worth £22,000 around a month earlier.
As a result, the 52-year-old – who composed the music for Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) and Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000), as well as co-composing Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003) – was sentenced to 16 months in prison last week. He was also disqualified from becoming a company director for six years.
David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
"Peter Connelly blatantly disregarded the rules of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, designed to support small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic.
Connelly not only secured two loans when businesses were only allowed one, but deliberately inflated his company’s turnover to receive more money than he was entitled to.
The Insolvency Service is the lead agency for tackling Bounce Back Loan misconduct and we remain committed to ensuring fraudsters who stole from the public purse during a national emergency are brought to justice."
As well as working on Tomb Raider titles, Connelly's credits include Driver: San Francisco (2011), Watch Dogs (2014), The Crew (2014), and South Park: The Fractured But Whole (2017).
During interviews with the Insolvency Service, Connelly claimed that he had been offered the chance to "reimagine the music for the Tomb Raider soundtrack". To do this, he took out personal loans and sold his car. However, work stalled when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and Peter Connelly Limited went into liquidation in August 2021.
Both loans were outstanding at this time, and Connelly entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) in June 2022, a commitment to repay existing debts.