Tomb Raidervideo game composer Peter Connelly has been sentenced to jail for COVID-19 loan fraud, the British government has announced. TheTomb Raiderseries was officially cited in the circumstances leading up to his conviction.
Peter Connelly, not to be confused with the long-time Microsoft Game Studios executive of the same name, is a British composer with over 60 video game credits spanning four decades. He worked on half a dozen games starring Lara Croft, ranging from the 1998Tomb Raider 3to the2025Tomb Raider 4–6 Remastered.
During a July 17 hearing at Durham Crown Court, Connelly was sentenced to a 16-month jail sentence forCOVID-19 loan fraud. His case centered on the UK’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), introduced to support small businesses throughout the 2020 pandemic, which caused many economic activities to grind to a halt. Under the British government’s rules, each business was entitled to take out one loan based on legitimate revenue figures. However, Connelly submitted multiple applications, one of which was fraudulent in more than one way, as per the government’spress releaseoutlining the outcome of his case.
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In May 2020, Connelly secured a £22,000 BBLS loan. A month later, he applied again with a different bank, securing a £37,500 loan based on a declared company turnover of £150,000. In August 2021, his company—Peter Connelly Ltd.—went into liquidation, with neither loan being repaid at the time. Not only did he falsely declare his second application was the only BBLS loan he sought at the time, but the Insolvency Service found that the £150,000 turnover figure was false, determining his actual 2019 revenue was just above £58,000.
Connelly told the Insolvency Service that he had been given the opportunity to re-imagine the music for the Tomb Raider soundtrack. This was a significant project which had the potential to be very lucrative, he added.
“Connelly told the Insolvency Service that he had been given the opportunity to re-imagine the music for the Tomb Raider soundtrack,” the agency said in a prepared statement. “This was a significant project which had the potential to be very lucrative, he added.” Based on the timing of these events, Connelly was presumably referring to the twoTomb Raiderremaster collections, the first of which was announced in 2023 and released a year later. The composer told investigators that the funds were intended to support the project while it stalled due to the pandemic, adding that he had already taken out some personal loans and even sold his car to stay afloat at the time.
In June 2022, Connelly entered into an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA) with the government, committing to repay his debts through regular payments. Apart from a 16-month jail sentence, the 52-year-old composer was also banned from serving as a company director for six years as part of the July 17 court decision. His conviction underlines ongoing efforts byBritish authoritiesto prosecute abuse of emergency pandemic relief programs.
