Pharmacist jailed for six months for ESPS fraud
CLARIFICATION (9 July 2005)
This report of the prosecution of Rajiv Sarna
for making a fraudulent Essential Small Pharmacy Scheme claim
was
based on information provided by NHS Counter Fraud Services.
NHS
Counter
Fraud Services now accepts that Mr Sarna would have been entitled
to £15,600 of the £23,000 he claimed. Mr Sarna returned £23,000
to the NHS before his trial, not before sentencing as reported,
and will now receive a refund of £15,600. |
Surrey pharmacist Rajiv Kumar Sarna, who owns pharmacies in Reading, Ascot and Basingstoke, was sentenced last week to six months imprisonment for defrauding the NHS of £23,000. Mr Sarna made false claims for support under the Essential Small Pharmacies Scheme.
Mr Sarna successfully applied for ESPS payments for his pharmacies in
Reading and Ascot in 1996. But in June 2002, the NHS Counter Fraud Service
(NHS CFS) was alerted to Mr Sarna submitting prescriptions from his Reading
and Ascot pharmacies through his pharmacy in Basingstoke in order to
keep dispensing volumes at his other two pharmacies within the ESPS
limits.
Following a six-day trial at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Sarna was found
guilty on 12 counts of false accounting. He repaid the full £23,000
before sentencing.
David Grey, operational manager of the NHS CFS pharmaceutical fraud team,
said: “I am pleased with the sentence given in this case. It illustrates
the severity of Mr Sarna’s actions and that cheating the NHS of
its much-needed resources will not be tolerated. We will now be looking
to ensure that action is taken by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of
Great Britain.”
Steve Lutener, head of regulation at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee, said that Mr Sarna’s conviction could result in the
removal of his rights to provide NHS pharmaceutical services through
his pharmacies. |
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