A pharmacist and a colleague from his wholesale business have been found guilty of defrauding the NHS out of £1.3m using false drug prescriptions.
The NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) said yesterday that Jignesh Patel, 46, of Princess Park Manor, London, and Rahil Patel, 42, of Churston Avenue, London, were found guilty on October 6 of three counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of converting criminal property, following a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Jignesh owns Wise Pharmacy in Edmonton, London, and pharmaceutical wholesale business Actipharm Limited.
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Rahil was employed as the responsible person (RP) at Actipharm and served in an unspecified role at the pharmacy, the NHSCFA said.
It said its investigation found that Wise Pharmacy had used NHS prescriptions to purchase seven “high-cost” drugs, including leukaemia medication Sprycel and antifungal drug Noxafil.
Actipharm then sold these drugs to European pharmaceutical wholesale businesses, it added.
The NHSCFA discovered that between May 2015 and November 2017, Wise Pharmacy had issued 1,639 false prescriptions to 440 individual patients, amounting to 6,983 dispensed items.
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And when Jignesh Patel was arrested and interviewed under caution in December 2017, £190,000 in cash was seized during a search of his properties.
The pair’s sentencing will take place on October 16, when a timetable for the Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation proceedings will also be set.
The NHSCFA confirmed to C+D that Jignesh Patel has been reported to the General Pharmaceutical Council.
“Unlikely” need to dispense
During the investigation, the Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS) traced payments for the prescriptions back to the NHS clinical commissioning group (CCG) areas of Barnet, Enfield, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The CCGs checked with the prescribing GPs and confirmed that there “was no documentation to support the patient’s need for the drug, or that it had been prescribed”.
The LCFS found that the drugs were being dispensed at Wise Pharmacy despite normally being dispensed by hospitals, with Noxafil and Sprycel showing the “largest losses” of the medicines prescribed.
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In 2016, NHS England alerted all north London pharmacies that pharmacists should contact the prescribing GP to “confirm authenticity” of prescriptions related to these drugs, and highlighted that it was “unlikely” pharmacies would need to dispense them.
The NHSCFA said that after the alert, Wise Pharmacy stopped claiming reimbursement from the NHS for Noxafil and Sprycel, but continued using NHS prescriptions to purchase both drugs.
The investigation found that the amount not claimed back by the pharmacy was £474,300 for Noxafil and £27,000 for Sprycel.
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At the time of Jignesh Patel’s arrest in 2017, the prescribing GPs were interviewed and said the prescriptions for the medicines were false.
As the investigation progressed, the NHSCFA identified invoices from Actipharm to pharmaceutical wholesalers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, along with a £28,920 payment for Noxafil.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) submitted European Investigation Orders to prosecutors in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium in November 2018 to obtain information from the pharmaceutical wholesalers, and NHSCFA staff visited a Copenhagen wholesale business with Danish police in March 2020.
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Material obtained by the CPS showed a link between Wise Pharmacy using false prescriptions to buy the drugs from manufacturers, and Actipharm selling them to European pharmaceutical wholesale businesses.
The NHSCFA found that Actipharm had sold £779,405 worth of Noxafil and Sprycel in Europe, but had not purchased the drugs itself, leading the investigation to conclude that “they could only have been obtained through Wise Pharmacy”.
“Followed the evidence”
Rahil Patel was Actipharm’s RP at the time of the offences, and he was interviewed under caution in February 2020.
The trial showed text messages between Rahil and Jignesh regarding buying the drugs with false prescriptions, including the messages “drop the nox to the warehouse today” and “U WANT MORE Sprycel N NOXA let me know asap”.
NHSCFA head of operations and engagement Ben Harrison said the investigation team “followed the evidence to bring these individuals to justice”.
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He said the pair had worked together for several years to purchase and sell on the drugs, but the convictions show “there is no hiding place for those who seek to defraud the NHS”.
“We will actively pursue any criminals that seek to defraud the NHS of vital funds and every pound stolen from the NHS is a pound that cannot be spent on frontline services, and the NHSCFA is committed to pursuing those responsible,” Harrison added.
It comes after investigations by a specialist security firm found that paper FP10 prescriptions were being misused to fraudulently obtain “high-value” weight loss drugs.
