‘Greedy’ pharmacist jailed after defrauding the NHS
APHARMACIST has been jailed for 16 months after overcharging the NHS by more than £76,000 while giving out cheap medication to dementia patients.
Michael Lloyd, 52, billed the health service for expensive liquid medicine from his pharmacy in south Wales while actually dispensing its cheaper tablet form over six years.
Yesterday, the respected chemist was labelled “greedy” by a judge after hearing he had “Tippexed” over or amended 1,500 prescription forms for patients to overcharge the NHS by tens of thousands of pounds.
Cardiff Crown Court was told the value of some of the medication Lloyd should have claimed for was as little as £3, and that what he actually received for the liquid form cost the NHS up to £300 a time.
It included drugs like Alzheimer’s medicines memantine and donepezil, which made up a third of the fraudulent prescriptions, and even basic painkillers and antibiotics.
Prosecutor Peter Donnison said Lloyd’s fraud was uncovered after a significant rise in the budget for dementia drugs was noted by the chief pharmacist of Cwm Taf University Health Board, Dr Brian Hawkins.
Mr Donnison said: “The differences in cost between tablets and liquid forms of drugs is substantial. The fraud is that he had prescribed the cheaper tablet form and then billed for liquid form.”
He explained liquid forms of the same medication were only needed in cases such as when a patient has a gag reflex or for young children.
Prescriptions normally have QR codes which are scanned by pharmacists to prevent fraud, but Lloyd altered handwritten ones issued by staff at the nearby Royal Glamorgan Hospital, as well as retrospectively altering records of medicine given by his employees.
Dr Hawkins’ concerns led to an investigation into Lloyd and Talbot Pharmacy, based in Talbot Green, Llantrisant, which he owns with his two brothers, along with four other branches.
He gave no comment in an initial police interview in January last year, but a year-long NHS fraud investigation soon found a total of 1,500 doctored prescriptions which totalled £76,475.
He later admitted his fraud and expressed “regret”, but told police: “I haven’t actually altered prescriptions, just endorsed them differently.”
Lloyd paid back the total to the Michael Lloyd, 52, illegally milked the cash-strapped NHS by wrongly claiming for expensive prescription medicines
NHS four weeks after the interview in May this year by taking out cash from his business, which the court heard he will have to pay back.
James Hartson, defending, described Lloyd as a “well-respected man”, who lives with his wife, a doctor, and their three children aged 17, 15, and nine in the village of Penllyn, near Cowbridge.
Mr Hartson said: “The motivation was financial, purely, which is unfathomable in a case like this – a successful career pharmacist, whose career is crashing down as I speak in a most awful and public way.”
Mr Hartson said Lloyd had been suspended from the profession for the last 21 months, and said it was likely he would “never be readmitted to that profession”.
Judge Neil Bidder said Lloyd had identified a “loophole” in the prescription system and accused him of being “greedy”.
The judge said: “The motivation here, and there is only one, is greed.
“I think it is inevitable you will never work as a pharmacist again. Your fall from grace is complete.
“The innocent victims in this case are your wife and three children, and I’m aware that will weigh very heavily on you.”
Lloyd pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and was jailed for 16 months.
Graham Dainty, Operational Fraud Manager of Counter Fraud Service Wales, said: “Pharmaceutical practitioners work in a key position of trust.
“Michael Lloyd abused his position as a pharmacist to deliberately defraud NHS Wales over an extended period of time.
“A dishonest minority are harming the reputation of the honest majority of pharmaceutical practitioners.
“This case shows that fraud will not be tolerated in NHS Wales and that suitable criminal, civil and disciplinary sanctions will always be pursued when appropriate.”