Health Care Assistant convicted of defrauding £14,685 from the NHS

 

On 25 January 2006, Nicholas James was sentenced to 220 hours Community Service, 2 year Community Order and to pay £5,000 in compensation.  He pleaded guilty to 10 sample charges of False Accounting and asked for 33 other offences to be taken into account.  Nicholas James completed 40 time sheets claiming for between 35 and 60 hours work on each when in fact he had not worked any these hours.  He also submitted 3 claims for accrued holiday pay based on the hours he falsely claimed.  In order for the fraud to succeed, he forged the signature of the authorising officer before delivering the documents to the payroll department.

 

Gareth Cottrell
Local Counter Fraud Specialist
Cornwall NHS