‘Tomb Raider’ composer jailed over COVID loan fraud

Peter Connelly, a video game composer best known for his work on the Tomb Raider franchise, has been jailed for fraud.

Connelly worked on 1998’s Tomb Raider 3: Adventures Of Lara Croft as a developer at Core Design before being promoted to lead composer for 1999’s Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Chronicles, which was released in 2000. He also co-wrote the score for 2003’s The Angel Of Darkness.

According to a report from the British government, Connelly claimed that in 2020 he had been given the opportunity to reimagine the music of Tomb Raider for a project that “had the potential to be very lucrative.”

To help fund the project, Connelly obtained a £22,000 government “Bounce Back” loan from the UK government, designed to help small and medium sized businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following month, he obtained a second loan for £37,500 via a different bank, even though businesses were only allowed to use the scheme once. In 2024, a remastered collection featuring Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Chronicles and Angel Of Darkness was released, though reworked music was never included as part of the updated collection.

An investigation by the UK’s Insolvency Service later found that Connelly had “deliberately inflated” his company’s financial position during the first few months of the pandemic to get a bigger loan than he was entitled to. He claimed his 2019 turnover was £150,000 when it was actually £58,000.

Connelly’s company went into liquidation in August 2021 without paying back either of the loans. The following year, he voluntarily agreed to start paying back the money.

At court yesterday (July 17) Connelly was sentenced to 16 months in prison and disqualified from acting as company director for six years. “Peter Connelly blatantly disregarded the rules of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, designed to support small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic,” said David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service. “We remain committed to ensuring fraudsters who stole from the public purse during a national emergency are brought to justice.”

Last week, it was confirmed that Lara Croft would be heading to World Of Tanks as part of a new collab but fans weren’t happy because there hasn’t been a new Tomb Raider game since 2018. “This is getting absolutely ridiculous. Lara has appeared in every single game except her own at this point,” wrote one disgruntled fan.

In other news, Assassin’s Creed fans are already worried about the planned live-action adaptation at Netflix due to the involvement of the former Halo showrunner.