Jail for hospital manager who stockpiled hip and knee joints at home in £600k NHS fraud

A hospital manager who stockpiled artificial hip and knee joints and surgical equipment at his home has been found guilty of helping to defraud £600,000 from the NHS.

Hasan Abusheikha, 47, formerly a theatre manager at St Albans City Hospital Trust was found guilty of offences under the Theft, Fraud and Bribery Acts.

When fraud investigators searched Abusheikha's home they found a large number of orthopaedic implantable devices, surgical instruments and medical equipment worth more than £65,000 which had been stolen from the trust.

They included different kinds of hip and knee joints, together with plates and screws.

St Albans Crown Court heard in total he and and two other men had defrauded £600,000 from the NHS.

The court heard that Abusheikha's job involved buying medical equipment on behalf of the trust.

As part of his role, he made purchase order requests for items required for surgical procedures carried out at the hospital.

The NHS Counter Fraud Authority discovered he had accepted bribes from two suppliers to buy their products for the trust.

Abusheikha was also convicted of receiving payments from two other suppliers to the trust.

He ordered goods from these companies that he himself had supplied to them - and in return was paid at least two-thirds of the value of the goods invoiced.

Elmo Emanuel, who was chief executive of Implants International and Xtremity Solutions Ltd, both of which were supplying medical equipment to the hospital, was found guilty of one charge of bribing Abusheikha.

A second trust supplier, Jawid Khan, a director of TSI Med Ltd, had already pleaded guilty to one charge of bribing Abusheikha.

All three will be sentenced at St Albans Crown Court, after which the NHSCFA and CPS will launch proceedings to recover any money taken from the NHS.

Following the verdict, NHS CFA fraud investigator Gemma Quemby said: “We are pleased that we were able to work with our colleagues from the Crown Prosecution Service to put evidence before the court to show the full extent of the criminality of those involved.”

The NHS Counter Fraud Authority said the NHS was vulnerable to £1.198 billion worth of fraud each year.

It has 300 fraud investigators in health trusts across England and Wales.

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