24 Hours in Police Custody: Surgeon to pay back £500k for fraud

His trial heard Anthony McGrath had been motivated by a desperate need for money

A hospital surgeon jailed for staging a burglary and committing mortgage fraud worth almost £1m has been ordered to pay back more than £500,000.

Anthony McGrath, 48, staged a break-in at his home in Luton and was jailed for eight years in 2019.

The case against McGrath was featured on Channel 4's 24 Hours in Police Custody, in April 2019.

He must repay the amount he currently has available, £564,518.97, by June, or face a further five years in jail.

The surgeon, who was based at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore in north-west London, claimed 95 items worth £182,612.50 had been stolen from the 19th Century cottage he was renting on the Luton Hoo Estate in 2015.

Anthony McGrath was filmed by Channel 4's 24 Hours In Police Custody being arrested at his home on the Luton Hoo Estate

McGrath provided photographs of items he claimed were stolen to police - including a marble fireplace worth £30,000 - but was caught when latitude and longitude information on the photo files showed some of them were taken at the McGrath family home in Co Meath, Ireland.

In addition to his fraudulent insurance claim, he submitted three fraudulent mortgage applications to secure more than £1m on two properties.

A £30,000 French red marble fireplace that was reported stolen had been installed at the McGrath family home in Ireland in 2010

His trial heard he had huge debts but wanted to finish renovating a £1.1m home he and his wife had bought in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

The mortgage payments on it were £2,400 per month and the couple were having to pay the same amount to rent a property while renovations were being carried out.

McGrath hoped his scam would raise enough to finish renovations on his £1.1m property in St Albans - which has since been found structurally unsound

Following a three-day hearing at Luton Crown Court, Judge Steven Evans concluded that McGrath's total "criminal benefit" from fraudulent mortgage loans had been more than £974,000.

He said McGrath had been "unco-operative and unforthcoming with information" during the hearing and branded him a "thoroughly dishonest witness, quite prepared to manipulate and forge evidence and tell lies in court".

Det Con Dave Brecknock of Bedfordshire Police featured in the Channel 4 programme about the case

Paul Fitzsimmons, from the police Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, said: "Despite arguing he shouldn't have to pay back a penny, McGrath was found by our specialist financial investigators to be in possession of assets worth significant sums.

"However, he continued to once again waste significant police time and resources across an extended period to prolong the inevitable."

McGrath, formerly of Clarence Road, St Albans, has been told he must pay back £564,518 by 26 June under the Proceeds of Crime Act, or five years will be added to his jail sentence.