NHS staff arrested over jab pass racket exposed by the MoS
SIX people – including NHS staff – have been arrested following a Mail on Sunday investigation into fake vaccine certificates.
Police launched an inquiry in October after we revealed how official patient records were being changed to show that people had received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine when, in reality, they had not been jabbed. A man was arrested at the time, and since then five more suspects have also been held.
Yet two months after our exposé, crooks are continuing to falsify NHS records, despite Government pledges to crack down on the crime. Last week we found fraudsters still
Fake certificates still on sale, despite ‘crackdown’
openly selling fake proof of double jabs for up to £400.
The failure of health chiefs to get a grip on the scandal will alarm Ministers as rules requiring people to provide proof of vaccination to enter venues such as nightclubs, theatres and sports stadia are set to come into force from Wednesday. Vaccine passports are already needed by care home workers and will be mandatory for NHS staff from April.
In our original investigation, reporters found fraudsters on the encrypted messaging app Telegram offering to alter the details of an unvaccinated person for £750.
Officers arrested 23-year-old Jordan Goodall, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, on the day we published details of the scandal, October 3. Since then Hampshire Police have arrested two men from London, aged 29 and 26, and three women from London and Maidstone, aged between 20 and 25.
All five were detained under the Computer Misuse Act. Four are under investigation for fraud. Mr Goodall is on police bail while the others have been released under investigation. Those employed by the NHS have been suspended.
Last week we found a user of messaging app Snapchat with the initials ‘TT’ advertising the same service. They had posted images of another person’s NHS records being changed along with the message, ‘Another one. Get me for your vaccination passports!’ Another post showed an NHS app updated with a registered Covid jab. When an undercover reporter made contact, ‘TT’ requested details of the person whose details were to be altered, including their NHS number, along with a payment of £400 to a bank account with the reference ‘Christmas’.
Within hours, ‘TT’ sent a screenshot of the health records showing that two fake vaccinations had been uploaded on to the system. By the following day, the NHS Covid app had been updated and had generated the official vaccine passport.
‘TT’ later said he could falsify booster jabs for an additional £250.
Another fraudster on Snapchat provided a convincing forgery of an NHS Covid certificate for £150. Nursery worker Jess Sniegocka, 19, said: ‘All I’ll need is full name. Full address and date of birth to go on the certificate. £150 gets payed [sic] over bank transfer and its [sic] ready in 1-3 days. Payment has to be sent first as I need to pay the plug [crook]. No one speaks to the plug themselves.’
Payment was made to an account belonging to Ms Sniegocka’s mother Elzbieta. At her home in Coventry, Elzbieta, 46, claimed that her daughter had sold only one certificate and that she had ordered her to stop when she noticed the money going into her account.
In our original investigation, we obtained records falsely showing two Pfizer jabs. A reporter was able to use the vaccine passport to enter a nightclub in London, a museum in Paris and to complete the passenger locator form for travellers coming to the UK.
Last night, Hampshire Police said they were continuing to work on the case.
The NHS said: ‘Using fraudulent vaccine passes contributes towards the spread of the virus and puts lives at risk. Regular checks of vaccine records are carried out to ensure data is accurate.
‘The NHS is working closely with the police and others to identify those responsible in this case so appropriate action can be taken.’