The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7260 p142
2 August 2003

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NHS: Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (www.cfsms.nhs.uk)

Pharmacist gets three years for defrauding NHS

A west London pharmacist has been sentenced to three years imprisonment after being found guilty of endorsing and amending prescription forms for his own gain.

Bernard Masters, proprietor of Clifford Evans Ltd, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, pleaded guilty in April 2003 to 23 counts of false accounting. He was sentenced last month. The charges were based on a sample of prescriptions submitted by Mr Masters to the Prescription Pricing Authority between 1999 and 2002.

Mr Masters was arrested on 27 May 2002 and, after being shown the sample prescriptions, he made a full admission. The NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS) estimates that Mr Masters defrauded the NHS of around £400,000 over a four-year period by systematically claiming for prescription items that had either never been dispensed or were never received by patients.

Mr Masters was subsequently charged on 2 July 2003 with a further three counts of false accounting relating to the period between December 2002 and February 2003. Mr Masters has agreed to pay back £250,000 in compensation and £13,000 in costs to the NHS.

Jim Gee, chief executive of the CFSMS, said: "The sentence given to Bernard Masters shows that the NHS will not tolerate those who abuse its services. Fraud in the NHS is a crime against patients and we know that the more we can protect the NHS from fraud, the better it can protect the public’s health."

Levels of patient prescription fraud are estimated to have fallen by 41 per cent between 1999 and 2002. The CFSMS is responsible for all policy and operational matters relating to security arrangements in the NHS as well as tackling fraud and corruption.