A LOCUM doctor at Bradford Royal Infirmary has been jailed for eight months for swindling £13,416 from the National Health Service by submitting false timesheets.

Dr Shahrad Arya forged consultants’ signatures in the fraud that cost Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust almost £35,000 in wrongfully paid wages and investigation costs.

Arya, 42, pleaded guilty to seven charges of falsely claiming he was working shifts at St Lukes Hospital, Bradford, and Bradford Royal Infirmary, while he was on the books of Medacs Healthcare recruitment agency.

Prosecutor Nadim Bashir told Bradford Crown Court today that Arya was a locum senior house officer, specialising in trauma and orthopaedics, when he was working in Bradford.

He falsified timesheets between February and April, 2013, including claiming for bank holidays when another doctor was on call.

Arya, of Pagers Lane, Uxbridge, Middlesex, forged the signatures of three consultants on timesheets he submitted to Medacs Healthcare. The agency was then paid out by the NHS Trust.

“Given the workload of the consultants, they rarely have the time to monitor the attendance and performance of locum doctors,” Mr Bashir told the court.

The onus was on locums to act honestly.

“One doctor took the word of another doctor, quite literally,” Mr Bashir added.

Arya was caught out when it was noted he had not been seen at many of the “on call” handover team meetings at the hospital.

In all, he fleeced the Trust out of £13,416 and the investigation cost £21,400.

Anthony Moore, barrister for Arya, said: “This man has lost everything. He has lost his good name. He has effectively lost his career.”

He was no longer registered with the General Medical Council and would never practise again in the UK or the United States.

Arya committed the fraud in desperation to prop up his ailing property business.

“He was under extreme financial pressures and saw a way out of it, and took it,” Mr Moore said.

Judge Colin Burn said Arya had betrayed the trust imposed in doctors.

“It is taxpayers’ money and the public are expecting the highest standards from their doctors,” he said.

“You were able to dash off signatures that purported to authenticate your claims.”

Bolstering Arya’s property business was an unattractive motive for fraud when some people could hardly scrape together enough money to pay the rent, the judeg added.

After the case, a spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We have worked closely with counter fraud officers throughout this case, and as a Trust we are continually reviewing our processes with regards to agency workers to ensure they are robust and secure.

“We now have a centralised locum booking team for the rigorous checking of timesheets.

“We have policies in place to ensure that those who defraud or attempt to defraud the NHS are caught and punished, and all efforts are made to recover lost NHS funds.

"It is simply not acceptable for anyone to defraud the NHS and it should not be tolerated.”

The investigation was led by NHS Protect.

Its managing director Sue Frith said: “We hope this conviction will send a message to others who may think it is acceptable to abuse a position of trust to line their own pockets – we will investigate and prosecute these offenders.”

The NHS Local Counter Fraud Specialist, David Parker, added: “This case demonstrates that fraud committed by NHS employees or contractors – regardless of the professional standing of the member of staff – is not tolerated.”

“Dr Arya breached the high level of trust placed in him for his own personal enrichment.”