Former NHS manager Deborah Hancox, 48, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, and her partner John Leigh, 57, were involved in a five-year conspiracy supplying IT equipment and services to the NHS at inflated prices
A woman who swindled £1million from the NHS to fund her luxury lifestyle before fleeing the country, being extradited and eventually jailed has returned to work – at the health service.
Former NHS manager Deborah Hancox, 48, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, and her partner John Leigh, 57, were involved in a five-year conspiracy supplying IT equipment and services to the NHS at inflated prices.
It is believed the value of the fraud totalled more than £1million, with the couple pocketing about £300,000 which they used to buy holiday homes in Cyprus, Dubai and the Lake District.
They were both eventually jailed for a total of five and a half years but it has now emerged that Hancox, after leaving prison and going under the new name of Deborah Moshin, has been working as an Effective Use of Resources Officer at the NHS.
The Mirror reports Hancox worked for Greater Manchester Shared Services, which gives advice to clinical commissioners across the region, but asked her to leave her post last month.
She and Leigh sparked a five-year manhunt after going on the run and fleeing to the Turkish part of Cyprus after being interviewed by police about the fraud in 2008.
They also bought a brand new Jaguar convertible and a Mercedes from the profits of the scam.
It was only when they moved to the south part of the island, the Republic of Cyprus, that the couple were brought back to Britain to face justice.
Hancox and Leigh, pictured, were jailed for 24 months and 44 months respectively
Hancox and Leigh (both pictured) sparked a five-year manhunt after going on the run and fleeing to the Turkish part of Cyprus after being interviewed by police about the fraud in 2008
The couple are believed to have started their scam back in 2003. Leigh worked for the NHS in purchasing and was responsible for buying mostly computers and other office equipment for various NHS departments. Hancox also worked for the NHS.
Despite being jailed for defrauding the health service, Hancox, pictured, has been re-employed by the NHS
For more than seven years, Leigh used a company called Action Direct Technology Ltd – of which his partner Hancox was the owner, sole shareholder and company director – to buy overpriced goods and defraud his employer the NHS.
The pair also used Bibi’s IT Solutions Ltd and Wiscom Technology Ltd as a front to disguise their ongoing fraud between January 2001 and October 2008.
The couple tricked the NHS into buying goods from their own companies – marking up prices by 30 per cent on average – and up to 60 per cent in other cases.
In 2014 the couple were jailed at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to conceal criminal property at an earlier hearing.
Leigh was sentenced to 44 months and Hancox was given 24 months in prison.
Sgt Laura Walters, of GMP, said at the time: ‘This couple were involved in an well-orchestrated and meticulously planned conspiracy to defraud the NHS out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
‘This was not a get-rich-quick scheme – this was a sustained criminal enterprise stretching over seven years. Seven years is a long time to see the error of your ways but these individuals showed no remorse for their actions.’
MailOnline has approached NHS England for a comment.