An NHS consultant has been struck off after claiming around £50,000 for hours he didn’t work.
Dr Uzair Irshad, 38, altered timesheets to fraudulently boost his pay, claimed money for working when he was actually on holiday and forged the signatures of two colleagues, a misconduct hearing was told.
The locum dermatology consultant illicitly fiddled his pay while working at NHS trusts in Doncaster and Barnsley between February 2019 and December 2020, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal.
The fraud involved a ‘significant and substantial sum’ and although the total sum was not revealed in the tribunal’s decision, records of altered timesheets indicate it was around £50,000, based on normal NHS hourly rates.
His dishonesty only came to light when a colleague became suspicious.
Those concerns triggered an investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Authority which referred to the case to the General Medical Council for a misconduct hearing.
By this time, Dr Irshad was working as a consultant for the Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Originally from Pakistan, he qualified to work in this country in 2014.
Dr Uzair Irshad (pictured), 38, altered timesheets to fraudulently boost his pay, a misconduct hearing was told
An aerial view of Hull Royal Infirmary, Hull University Teaching Hospitals, where Mr Irshad previously worked
The locum dermatology consultant illicitly fiddled his pay while working at NHS trusts in Doncaster and Barnsley between February 2019 and December 2020
Dr Irshad admitted 25 counts of dishonesty at the start of the tribunal in Manchester earlier this month.
Alan Taylor, for the GMC, said: ‘The dishonesty in this case was premeditated and repeated over a significant period of time, constituting a pattern of fraudulent claims.
‘It was also persistent dishonesty and was covered up by forging the signatures of others.
‘Reasonable and properly informed members of the public would be shocked and disgusted by Dr Irshad’s actions in submitting fraudulent timesheets and defrauding the NHS over such an extended period.’
Mr Taylor said Dr Irshad amended timesheets after they were signed by colleagues and forged signatures on other forms.
‘His actions represent very serious departures from the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of registered medical practitioners,’ he said.
Mr Taylor said Irshad had failed to give a satisfactory reason for his conduct and added: ‘It strains credulity that the motive was not financial, given that the timesheets claimed additional hours.’
Dr Irshad admitted 25 counts of dishonesty at the start of the tribunal in Manchester earlier this month
In his evidence, Dr Irshad claimed he ‘lost control’ of himself during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and was also undergoing a series of personal family issues at the time he was making the fraudulent claims.
Confirming the tribunal’s decision to immediately strike him off the medical register, chairman Paul Moulder said: ‘The tribunal was of the view that Dr Irshad had not shown an understanding of what went wrong, what were the causes of him embarking on a dishonest course of conduct, and he had not considered the impact of his behaviour on his colleagues or on the profession.
In his evidence, Dr Irshad claimed he ‘lost control’ of himself during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic
‘The tribunal was troubled by Dr Irshad’s evidence, as he seemed unable to provide a reason for his actions, other than to deny any suggestion of a financial motivation.
‘The tribunal concluded that the dishonesty in this case was very serious and at the higher end of the spectrum of dishonesty.’
He added that the conduct was ‘both professionally and morally disgraceful.’
Mr Moulder concluded the misconduct was ‘fundamentally incompatible’ with continued registration as a medical practitioner.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk