Surgeon who landed job by ly ing found guilty of fraud
‘It’s important to be honest’
A SCOTS-educated surgeon who lied about the number of operations he had carried out to land a lucrative hospital job has been convicted of fraud.
Sudip Sarker duped an expert panel of interviewers by telling them that he had performed 51 out of 85 keyhole operations while working solo.
In fact, the true figure was just six.
As a result of his lie, Sarker got a job with Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
He was working at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, on a salary band advertised at between £74,000-£100,000 a year.
But on starting the role in August 2011, tasked with helping to build a surgical team, he struggled with the responsibilities of the position and stopped practising in July 2012.
At his Worcester Crown Court trial, Sarker, 48, denied lying to get the job.
He told the jury he had taken a ‘guesstimate’ at how many procedures he had carried out.
However, he was convicted by the jury yesterday in less than two hours, with judge Robert Juckes, QC, lifting legal restrictions so the trial could be reported for the first time. In evidence Sarker – who graduated in medicine from Glasgow University and worked at the Royal Free Hospital and Whittington Hospital, London – claimed he was ‘very nervous’ ahead of his job interview.
He said that in preparation, he refreshed his memory about his 26 years of clinical expertise by ‘quickly’ looking in his professional log book ‘just to see some numbers’.
Sarker, of Broadstairs, Kent, claimed to have simply ‘misunderstood’ the question when asked how many keyhole surgeries he had performed.
Instead, he told the panel, which included senior medics, that he had performed 85 keyhole, or laparoscopic, sigmoid colectomies – where part of the bowel is removed – either by himself or assisting other surgeons.
During cross-examination, Jacob Hallam, QC, prosecuting, asked: ‘You did English, maths, chemistry, biology and physics Scottish Higher qualifications. Then you went to do medicine at university, and then a PhD.
‘But you didn’t understand the question that you were being asked?’
Sarker replied: ‘The figures I gave reflected both open surgery and laparoscopic (procedures).’
Mr Hallam then asked: ‘As a doctor, you know it’s important to be honest about your experience and qualifications – part of that is accuracy.
‘You would have known the figures you were giving, even on your version of events, were not accurate – they weren’t precise?’
Sarker replied: ‘It was a guesstimate.’
A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: ‘Mr Sarker worked at the trust for 14 months, until his suspension in October 2012, which led to his later dismissal.
‘We have co-operated fully with West Mercia Police throughout their investigation and welcome today’s verdict.’
Sarker is due to be sentenced next week.