Llangyfelach bogus work dentist sentenced for NHS fraud

Elizabeth White had claimed cash for dental work on NHS patients she never carried out

A dentist who made up bogus treatments and fraudulently charged the NHS £23,500 has been sentenced.

Now-retired Elizabeth White made almost 400 false claims while working at the Morgan and White practice in Swansea between 2006 and 2014.

At Swansea Crown Court, she was given a 12 month sentence suspended for a year after admitting two counts of fraud at the Llangyfelach clinic in March 2015.

NHS lead investigator, Mark Weston, said White was driven by "greed".

She was caught following an investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Service Wales after officers became suspicious she was "treatment splitting".

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This meant she was submitting multiple claims for single dental treatments and also claiming for work to NHS patients that was never done.

White, of Southgate on the Gower, has since paid back the £23,551 she gained in false claims and a further £10,000 to cover erroneous charges related to these.

She was suspended by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (ABMU) Health Board in 2015 but resumed work as a dentist the following year under supervision and retired in April.

The practice has since been sold and is operating under a different name

Judge Patrick Curran criticised the time it took to investigate the fraud despite White's admission of guilt in March of 2015.

"It's a delay I regard as inordinate," he said, "for what was not a very sophisticated fraud."

He ordered White to pay £340 costs, and only £1,200 of the £13,000 spent investigating her deception.

After the hearing Mr Weston, said White was driven by "greed".

"As a dentist she was in a privileged position of trust, which she has abused," he said.

When asked to explain the fraud as she left court, White said it was the result of her "NHS contract".

ABMU's dental director Karl Bishop described her actions as "totally unacceptable", adding: "By defrauding the NHS in this way, she not only abused her privileged position of trust, but took funds for herself which should have been used for patients."

Since the offences were committed, the Morgan and White dental practice has been sold and is under new ownership.