Former senior NHS Manager jailed for defrauding the taxpayer

A total of £802,987 was stolen from the Mid Essex Hospital Trust over seven years

Barry Stannard had set up two companies which he used to invoice the NHS (Getty Images)

A former senior manager for the NHS was jailed on Wednesday having defrauded hundreds of thousands of pounds from a hospital trust where he worked.

Barry Stannard, 53, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court for two counts of fraud of cheating the Revenue and two counts of fraud by false representation. He has been sentenced to serve five years and two months and two years in prison concurrently.

Mr Stannard was employed at the Mid Essex Hospital Trust where he stole a total of £802,987 over seven years, between January 2012 and July 2019.

The NHS manager had set up two companies - BNC Communications Limited and Data Power Services Limited – which he used to send hundreds of fake invoices to the hospital, which he would then sign off himself.

The court also heard that Mr Stannard had convictions for three previous offences. These included theft by an employee, a stolen blank MOT certificate that he had filled in with his vehicle’s details, handling stolen goods and forgery.

Roger Makanjuola of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Mr Stannard had “abused his position” and “betrayed” trust.

He explained: “Stannard set up two bogus companies with the sole intention of taking money from the NHS – which could have been spent on doctors, nurses and patients’ treatment.

“He abused his position at the Mid Essex Hospital Trust and betrayed the trust to pocket £802,9987 of taxpayers’ money over several years. Thanks to the hard work of the CPS’s Specialist Fraud Division and NHS Counter Fraud Authority, we have stopped Stannard’s atrocious criminality and brought him to justice.”

An investigation was launched by the NHS Counter Fraud Authority together with HMRC. It revealed that Mr Stannard had submitted a ‘nil return’ declaration of interests form to the Trust, when in fact he was the director of two companies which had been the recipient of a huge amount of money from the trust between at least 2012 and 2019.

Mr Stannard was working as the Head of Unified Communications at the Mid Essex Hospital Trust and as a result was trusted with approving invoices of up to £7,500. Mr Stannard’s own companies submitted hundreds of invoices for relatively modest sums, meaning that he was able and authorised to sign them off without having to undergo any further checks.

Sue Frith, chief executive of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, said: “Barry Stannard abused his position in an outrageous way to line his pockets with money intended for NHS services,” reported the Maldon and Burnham Standard.

She went on to add: “We are aware of the significant risk that procurement fraud poses for the NHS, which is why the NHS Counter Fraud Authority has continually worked to develop fraud prevention solutions over the last few years.”

“If you suspect NHS fraud, please report your concerns to us through either our online reporting form, or by calling our fraud and corruption reporting line.”

The case was prosecuted by the Specialist Fraud Division of the CPS who are a dedicated prosecuting team that deal with economic crime cases. These include corruption as well as money laundering.