Man jailed for defrauding GP surgery

A man has been jailed for defrauding a General Practice Surgery in High Wycombe.

Nabeel Asghar, aged 43, of Brands Hill, High Wycombe, was jailed for three years at Aylesbury Crown Court.

Asghar was the Practice Manager of Hughenden Valley Surgery in Valley Road, working on a contractual basis since November 2021.

As part of his responsibilities, which included day to day management of the surgery as well as finances, Asghar had full access to the surgery’s bank accounts on the Barclays online portal, had his own PIN for access, along with his own card and card reader.

Asghar was responsible for making his own salary payments using the practice bank account.

An audit revealed that between 30 May 2022 and 1 February 2023, Asghar made five unauthorised salary payments to himself, totalling £25,159.35, which were in addition to his legitimate salary.

Asghar also set up a bank account in the name of NS Medical. Using this account between 25 March 2022 and 24 March 2023, he paid the Locum Superintendent Pharmacist at the surgery her legitimate invoices, whilst forging new invoices under the pharmacist’s name and charging Hughenden Valley Surgery inflated fees.

Asghar kept the difference in the value of the invoices for his own benefit. This was done on fourteen occasions to the total of £44,182.67.

The total value of the gain derived from the fraud was £69,342.02.

Asghar’s contract at the Surgery was terminated in March 2023 on grounds of gross misconduct.

Senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Duncan Wynn of the Central Fraud Unit, said: “Nabeel Asghar abused the trust placed in him by his employers to systematically defraud the NHS of a substantial amount of money purely for his personal gain.

“His offences were sophisticated and pre meditated in nature involving the setting up of other bank accounts to facilitate the fraudulent activity, which was carried out over a sustained period of time.

“Wrongly, fraud is often seen as a victimless crime. In this case precious public funds were stolen and this effects everyone.

“This conviction and subsequent sentence shows how seriously these offences are taken by the courts and sends a clear message that Thames Valley Police will relentlessly pursue fraud suspects and bring them to justice.” 

Asghar was arrested on 11 July last year and charged with the offences on 23 November.

He was jailed at Aylesbury Crown Court on 28 March after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation at a previous hearing on 22 January.