Trevor Barry Cosson, a former head of financial accounting at two separate NHS Trusts, has been jailed for 5 years and 4 months for fraudulently stealing £2.2m from the Trusts in order to buy 11 properties in Sussex and London. It was found that Cosson set up fake standing orders to suppliers, but instead of the money being used to buy supplies, they were syphoned straight into accounts owned and managed by Cosson.
He pleaded guilty to the charges, but only after an investigation by NHS Protect, the division that is established to locate and investigate such crimes within the National Health Service. The former head of the group’s anti-fraud section said, in March, that £5bn a year was lost to fraud and a further £2bn was lost to financial errors within the group.
Fraud is a major problem within the NHS. Jim Gee, the ex-director of NHS Counter Fraud Services, published a report in March that said the NHS was losing £5bn a year to fraud and a further £2bn to financial errors. The NHS questioned the figures, saying that they did not recognise the numbers, which were 20 times higher than the numbers recorded in the government’s annual fraud indicator report. Gee used global figures that estimate 7% of annual healthcare budgets are lost to these activities.
Mr Cossons committed his crimes within two Primary Care Trusts. Between 2008 and 2011, he set up and signed off on standing order payments to the tune of £810,000 from Hastings and Rother PCT. He also took a further £1.4m from the two PCTs – this was made possible partially because the two trusts shared a single financial department but was discovered because of a restructuring that involved both of the trusts.
Prosecutors said that Cossons had stolen the money in order to be able to lead a life that he could not afford. The properties, which include eight properties in St Leonards On Sea and a flat in London, will be auctioned off in order to recover some of the money that was taken.