£1M NHS CROOK GETS JOB.. WITH NHS
Outrage after woman who was jailed for health service con goes back to work
A MANAGER jailed for a £1million NHS scam got a health job after her release.
Deborah Hancox and partner John Leigh flogged goods to hospitals from their own firm at hiked up prices, creaming off £330,000 for a luxury lifestyle.
But Hancox, 48, wormed her way into another NHS job in Greater Manchester using a different name.
A source said: “The fact she got back in is horrifying.”
SCHEMING Deborah Hancox funded a lavish lifestyle by fleecing the NHS of vital cash meant for the sick in a shocking five-year scam.
But the shameless crook wormed her way back into a health trust job using a different name after being freed from a jail sentence for the IT fraud.
Along with partner John Leigh, she bought a Jaguar car and homes in Dubai and the Lake District with cash that should have been helping save lives.
The revelation that she was then given a post as an Effective Use of Resources Officer has sparked fury. She worked in the role for a year in Greater Manchester using the name Moshin.
Hancox, 48, and Leigh, 54, both worked for the NHS when they sold goods to the health service from their own firms at hiked up prices – pocketing £330,000 in illegal proceeds from £1million of sales, the court was told.
The insider said: “I am appalled that someone with Hancox’s history who served time in prison for stealing from the NHS could get a job at the NHS again through an agency. What she did was disgusting but the fact she managed to get back in is horrifying.”
Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams added: “This is shocking. I want to know how this was able to happen and have asked for this to be fully investigated.”
Hancox worked for Greater Manchester Shared Services, which gives advice to clinical commissioners across the region. It has offices in Oldham and Salford.
It is believed she was asked to leave her post last month.
They started their elaborate scam as far back as 2003 when he was an IT purchaser with the North Western Deanery. He was responsible for buying computers and office equipment. Hancox worked as an NHS manager.
They were employed by the former North West Strategic Health Authority.
The couple tricked the NHS into buying goods from their own companies – marking up prices by 30% on average.
But some prices had been inflated by nearly 60%, racking up at least £1million for their firms and overcharging the health service by more than £330,000.
When the scam was discovered in 2008 they fled to northern Cyprus, which had no extradition treaty with the UK. But Hancox and Leigh were arrested on a visit to the south of the island in 2013 and brought back to face justice.
She admitted fraud and was jailed for two years in 2014 at Manchester crown court.
He pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering and got 44 months.
After the hearing, Sergeant Laura Walter of Greater Manchester Police said: “This is not a victimless crime. It is the NHS they scammed out of out thousands of pounds, money which the NHS badly needs.”
Hancox refused to comment when approached by the Mirror outside her home in Middleton, Manchester. As she clambered into her red BMW, she said only: “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go.” She then drove off with Leigh beside her.
The couple were ordered to sell their home in Dubai in 2016 and hand the proceeds to the NHS. Papers showed it went on the market at a “significantly reduced price”.
Prosecutors were hoping to claw back almost £190,000 from the couple’s assets.
GMSS said of Hancox’s NHS job: “Due to date protection we can not confirm or deny employment.”