A Norfolk Conservative peer has said a "pandemic of fraud" meant company directors were able to buy sports cars using government loans meant to support businesses through the Covid pandemic.

Lord Agnew of Oulton - founder of the Norfolk-based Inspiration Trust group of academy schools - quit his role as Treasury and Cabinet Office minister for efficiency and transformation in January.

He resigned partly in protest at the handling of the government's £47bn Bounce Back Loans scheme, criticising “schoolboy” handling of Covid business loans.

On Thursday (March 3), Lord Agnew gave evidence to a House of Lords committee examining the issue.

He criticised oversight by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the British Business Bank over the scheme, which provided loans of up to £50,000 to smaller businesses during the pandemic.

He said there had been no data dashboard overseeing what happened to the money.

The National Audit Office estimates as much as £5bn could have been claimed fraudulently.

Lord Agnew said: "I don't want to be Captain Hindsight here and say if everything had been handled differently two years ago everything would be happy today.

"But there are still bits of data which would help us tackle this, what I think is a complete pandemic of fraud.

"How much of the money which was paid of that £47bn, which went into company accounts, left those company accounts within a few days or weeks of the money hitting those businesses?

"We know there are hundreds of anecdotal examples of directors of these companies taking the money out of the business, putting it in their private accounts and going off and buying a sports car.

"That is a fraud. That is against the purpose of the loan. The banks will have the data on it.

"They know exactly where the money moves and when it moves, but can we please see the data and what they are doing about it?"

And Lord Agnew added: "I sent letters of congratulations to Border Force staff who picked up suitcases of cash leaving the country."

He called for more resources and "clout" within government to tackle fraud.

Following his resignation, prime minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman said: "We’ve always been clear fraud is unacceptable and are taking action against those abusing the system."