Invoice fraud conviction for NHS supplier

Friday 30th August, 2013

An agent acting as a supplier for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has been convicted of invoice fraud and jailed for 15 months. Bradford based company, UK Surgical acted as an agent for Abbott Vascular (a Netherland's based company), supplying stents for heart surgery to the NHS Trust.

When UK Surgical lost the contract, the NHS Trust failed to receive notification of the new supplier. When in 2009 a batch of orders was sent to UK Surgical in error, false invoices were sent to the trust using personal bank details. In 2010 an order was placed for around £75,000 worth of medical equipment. Despite denying the fraud, an audit trail was uncovered which highlighted the fraudulant transactions and the subsequent dispersal of funds across several accounts.

Ali Sarfaraz, who ran UK Surgical, was convicted of 14 fraud offences, including submitting false invoices and faces a Proceeds of Crime hearing in October.