A pharmacist and wholesale business owner has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in defrauding the NHS out of £1.3m.
The NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) said Jignesh Patel, 46, of Princess Park Manor, London, was sentenced to six years at Southwark Crown Court on October 16.
He owns Wise Pharmacy in Edmonton, London, and pharmaceutical wholesale business Actipharm Limited.
Read more: ‘No hiding place’: Pharmacy owner guilty of £1.3m NHS fraud
His colleague at Actipharm, Rahil Patel, 42, of Churston Avenue, London, was also sentenced to six years in prison.
Both had been found guilty of three counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of converting criminal property on October 6.
C+D previously reported that Wise Pharmacy had used NHS prescriptions to purchase seven “high-cost” drugs - including leukaemia medication Sprycel and antifungal drug Noxafil - which Actipharm then sold to European pharmaceutical wholesale businesses.
Read more: Fraudsters using FP10 scripts to obtain weight loss drugs
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.
At the sentencing, His Honour Judge Cole praised the investigation as “thoroughly impressive” and said the pair committed the crimes “out of greed”.
“You were equal partners in the serious fraud designed to make you a lot of money,” he added.
Read more: Around £2m of fake weight loss jabs seized in MHRA raid
The NHSCFA said its investigators will now use their powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to recover the lost NHS funds.
It previously confirmed to C+D that Jignesh Patel has been reported to the General Pharmaceutical Council.
It comes after US pharmacy chain CVS paid $315m to settle a lawsuit claiming that it “illegally filled” prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances and was reimbursed for “many” of them by federal healthcare programs.
