A director of a Bradford company has been jailed for defrauding the NHS of more than £100,000.

Sarfaraz Ali, 35, whose business supplied stents for heart surgery, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of 14 offences, including two of fraud involving submitting false invoices, and 12 relating to money laundering of £100,829.15.

The total loss to the NHS was £102,500, the court was told.

Ali, a director of UK Surgical Ltd in Bradford, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and now also faces a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The court heard how Ali had spotted an opportunity to divert money to himself by forging invoices for the stents to East Lancashire Hospitals Trust.

He had previously acted as a contracted agent for Abbott Vascular, a company based in the Netherlands, which supplied stents for cardiac procedures to the Cardiac Catheter Laboratories of ELHT, among other trusts in the North West.

In 2007, Abbott Vascular set up its UK operations, which meant it no longer required the services of UK Surgical and terminated its contract.

Letters were sent to the NHS organisations involved by Abbott Vascular, however ELHT’s procurement department did not receive one.

In September 2009, following a procedure involving the use of a new type of stent, orders were raised and sent in error by ELHT to the previous address of the now defunct UK Surgical, not Abbott Vascular.

It was then that Ali sent two forged invoices along with changed bank account details, which ELHT’s procurement department accepted and entered on its computer system.

In February 2010, as the second of two Cardiac Catheter Laboratories was due to open, it was decided a ‘call off’ order would be made to the value of £75,000 to stock the new Catheter Lab and numerous other orders followed.

In total, orders to the value of £102,500 were placed directly to Abbott Vascular, but the payments for the invoices were sent to the UK Surgical account.

Ali, of Milton Place, Halifax, was arrested in 2011 and interviewed three times but still denied any involvement.

Specialist officers in the Economic Crime Unit at West Yorkshire Police found that the cash had been paid into Ali’s Royal Bank of Scotland account and onwards to other accounts in an attempt to conceal the theft.

These included one payment of £83,501.39, which he immediately transferred through a number of other bank accounts. All the money was taken out of the accounts via two bank drafts.

Jailing Ali, Judge Peter Benson noted the loss to the National Health Service was more than £102,000 and, while accepting errors were made by the trust, he said it was clear that Ali’s offending was fraudulent from the outset.

He also said the defendant had told multiple lies and tried to deceive the jury, whose verdict was unanimous.