Parents fiddled £300,000 out of NHS

A £300,000 London hospital fraud by a jobless couple involving forged travel expenses was only uncovered when they split up, a court heard today.

Jane McCormack, 28, of Battle, East Sussex, and her former partner Jason Jenkins, 34, of Wandsworth, pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court to taking part in the fraud which went on for more than two years and at its height was bringing in £3,500 a week.

Edward Lewis, prosecuting, said the couple had been given the idea of photocopying a travel expenses claim form by the parents of another child waiting in a queue at a clinic at King's College Hospital.

"Between August 2000 and March 2003, Jenkins and McCormack managed to pocket nearly £300,000 in cash from King's College Hospital by submitting false travel claim forms," said Mr Lewis.

"This would have continued undetected had Jenkins not given himself up in pique at Miss McCormack leaving him. There is every likelihood this matter would not have come to light but for this fact."

He added: "This fraud is astonishing in so far as nobody noticed the huge amount being paid out daily. Nobody scrutinised the forms themselves for falsity and a similar fraud had clearly been carried out by others before this because Jenkins and McCormack were tipped the wink by another person waiting at the hospital."

Mr Lewis criticised the lack of security within the King's College Hospital NHS Trust by using Jenkins's own words. After "spilling the beans", Jenkins told police that he found it astounding such huge sums of money were being paid out with nobody asking any questions.

The court was told that McCormack became the protagonist in the fraud after her son Harry, now aged four, became ill with jaundice and had to be treated at King's College Hospital. She had had to fill in all the forms because Jenkins is dyslexic.

At the height of the fraud, the couple were submitting fresh claims on an hourly basis with McCormack claiming £27.80 for each of her fictitious journeys and Jenkins £25.50.

The court was told that by March, the hospital was receiving 18 forms a day every weekday without anyone performing a basic check.

The NHS travel claim forms were described by Mr Lewis as "basic" in the extreme and there was not even a warning at the end telling claimants of any penalties for misleading statements.

The case was adjourned until next Friday by Deputy Circuit Judge Leo Charles QC pending the consideration of background reports on the pair.

A spokesman for the hospital trust could not explain why staff failed to notice the couple were submitting up to 18 false expenses claims a day. He said procedures had since been tightened up.

NHS rules say that under certain circumstances, patients or close relatives receiving state benefits can claim travel expenses to and from hospital.