A court has jailed for fraud four members of an elite group of doctors employed by Basildon Hospital to provide NHS heart and lung services.
The doctors were found to have completed just half the hours stipulated in their contracts, but had continued to claim their salaries while “moonlighting” at private hospitals.
The doctors had been contracted for a 37.5-hour working week at Basildon Hospital between 2007 and 2011, the court heard. The four doctors – Ann Clements, 51, Tom Cumberland, 42, John Mulholland, 41 and Martin Oliver, 37 – were directors of a private medical provider called London Perfusion Science Ltd (LPS). The firm was contracted to provide clinical perfusion services for heart and lung machines during heart operations at Basildon Hospital.
During the contract, the four worked 14,000 hours fewer than they had been paid for by Basildon Hospital – and had earned an extra £700,000 during that period by using their time to work at private hospitals, mainly at Hammersmith Hospital in northwest London. It is estimated they may have profited by around £420,000 as a result of the fraud.
The team also directed junior staff from Basildon Hospital to other hospitals.
The court was told that the ringleader of the scam was John Mulholland, an internationally renowned heart surgeon.
The court also heard that email correspondence between the four demonstrated a lack of regard for the NHS – they referred to Basildon Hospital as “Bas Vegas”, a pun on the US gambling capital Las Vegas.
Mulholland had also admitted in an email to his co-defendants that he tried to avoid accepting NHS work “unless it's going to make cash/make our lives easier”.
In court, Mulholland’s defence lawyer said he had a daughter with a chronic serious illness and his wife would be left to care for her solely if her father were jailed. The court heard that as a result of the scam, Mulholland was also like to lose his professional accreditation.
Mulholland’s co-defendants were described as “medium-scale players” whose careers, like Mulholland’s were also “in tatters”.
The court heard that as a result of the fraud, no patients were known to have suffered any ill-effects.
However, Judge David Owen-Jones said the fraud was “a systemic, well-planned, organised and executed initiative”.
“You all four gravely abused the trust placed in you,” said Judge Owen-Jones.
“It's awful to see people of your education, previous good character and achievements convicted of these kinds.
“I feel these offences were motivated purely by greed.”
All four defendants were convicted of conspiracy to defraud at Basildon Crown Court.
Mullholland of Copenhagen Place in east London was jailed for three years.
Martin Oliver of Basin Approach in east London, Ann Clements of Wharf Lane in Limehouse, east London and Tom Cumberland of Penge in southeast London were all jailed for two years.
All four defendants were banned from working as company directors for four years.
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