Former Cleobury Mortimer NHS manager jailed after admitting spending more than £123,000 of taxpayers money
A former Dudley NHS manager who swindled taxpayers out of more than £123,000 has been jailed for two and a half years.
Alec Gandy, aged 42, who was living in Cleobury Mortimer at the time, was a senior operational manager at Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust (ICB) when he defrauded the organisation between April 2021 and December 2023 of £123,090.
He was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court this afternoon (Friday) having earlier pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by abuse of position.
His ex-wife Kaylee Wright, with whom he shares two children, was one of the recipients of the fraud, along with friend Matthew Lane - Gandy set up false employee accounts and all three falsified invoices which they submitted, claiming they were providing services to the trust.
Lane saw £82,000 go into his account and Wright £40,890 into hers before significant portions were handed back to Gandy, who the court heard spent more than £92,000 of the money on gambling and transferred £12,000 to three business he was listed as running at the time and registered to Cleobury Mortimer and Ludlow.
A victim impact statement read out to the court from the ICB's director of finance said the money could have been used to improve patient care, providing additional roles within GP practices to supply more healthcare appointments for patients.
Or, it said it could have paid for four nursing associates for a year, two community paramedics or two clinical pharmacists.
Lane, of Bridge Street, Evesham and Wright, of Lark Rise, Kidderminster had already pleaded guilty to one count each of money laundering.
Lane was given 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and Wright given a community order for 18 months, She was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
The Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust merged with the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in April 2020 to form the ICB.
In a statement, the ICB said the issue was identified and escalated to the NHS Counter Fraud team for appropriate action.
The statement said: “The NHS takes allegations of fraud extremely seriously and we do not tolerate any misuse of public funds.
“While we strongly condemn the behaviour of this individual, we are reassured that the measures taken in Dudley have not only addressed the issue but have also strengthened financial processes, making it significantly more difficult for such actions to occur in the future.
"We can confirm the individual involved no longer works for the organisation.”
Ben Harrison, head of operations at the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, said: “This outcome endorses the value of our robust and objective approach to ensuring that anyone who attempts to defraud the NHS is brought to justice.
“This was a calculated scheme that diverted significant public funds away from frontline patient care. Our investigation, with the support of West Mercia Police and the subsequent prosecution by colleagues at the Crown Prosecution Service revealed a deliberate abuse of position, with Gandy exploiting his senior role to manipulate NHS payment systems for personal gain.
“The NHS Counter Fraud Authority remains firmly committed to protecting vital NHS resources and we will continue to pursue those who seek to defraud our health service.
“We encourage anyone with suspicions of fraud against the NHS to report it through our confidential reporting channels.”