An NHS boss, who stole more than £500,000 from the taxpayer to live a life of fabulous luxury, has been jailed for three years and eight months.
Thomas Elrick, 56, submitted a series of fake invoices to the UK’s national health service and used his dead wife’s email account to cover his tracks.
Elrick was employed as the assistant managing director for planned and unscheduled care at Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) where he had the authority to approve invoices up to £50,000.
The fraudster authorised 28 separate payments totalling £564,484 to a ghost company called Tree of Andre Therapy Services Limited.
He used the money to jet around the world and stay in five-star hotels in the Maldives, Dubai, and Singapore.
Thomas Elrick, 56, (pictured) submitted fake invoices to the NHS to steal £564,484
Elrick dined in top restaurants and spent a thousands of pounds with Amazon, Apple and health club David Lloyd,
Tree of Andre Therapy Services Limited was registered in Scotland under Elrick’s husband’s name and the money was paid into a bank account registered to himself.
He was the sole authoriser of the invoices and no services were delivered for to the NHS by the company.
To cover up his scheme, an email was sent to Harrow CCG in June 2020 claiming to be from Tree of Andre, providing anonymised patient details where care was provided.
He sent it from the email address of his wife Carolyn Platt, who died eight years previously.
Elrick’s con was revealed when a colleague queried invoices and found that Tree of Andre was not registered on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website.
Elrick’s home in Motherwell, Scotland, was raided in November 2021 and he was arrested.
He admitted carrying out the fraud and accepted Tree of Andre was a ghost company.
Prosecuting Conall Bailie said: ‘The money was paid in over the course of 28 transactions into Mr Elric’s bank account.
‘Spending on that account shows a substantial sum of over £100,000 spent on holidays to Dubai, Hong Kong, the Maldives, Singapore and Switzerland.
‘Just under half a million was spent on shopping, with significant sums spent on Amazon, Apple, Boots, David Lloyd, Curry’s, and so on.’
Sentencing him to three years and eight months in prison on 30 August, Judge Vanessa Francis condemned Elrick’s actions that took medical treatment away from vulnerable patients.
She said: ‘You have worked in the NHS all your life, you are clearly someone who clearly cares deeply about helping others.
‘Yet you used the system to systematically defraud the local authority who had employed you to the tune in total of over £565,000.
‘The harm here is that this was a publicly funded, public body, already in deficit, placed further in deficit as a result of Mr Elrick’s behaviour.
Michael Elrick (pictured outside Harrow Crown Court) was jailed for three years and eight months
‘It’s about the fact that there was even less money available to provide the care.
‘For an NHS department already in deficit, what you did was take away the opportunity for people to be treated, for people to be helped and get what they needed.
‘It meant in practical terms the vulnerable people who needed care did not get as much care as they needed and you are responsible for that.
‘Quite why you behaved in this way having lived a blameless life is anyone’s guess.
‘I know that you are a man who has had to survive perhaps more tragedies in your personal life than most. You have been a caring father, husband and son.
‘Why you chose to live a totally unattainable and unsustainable lifestyle is anyone’s guess.
‘You created so much harm to so many people it’s hard to calculate. Your family are now living with the result of your behaviour.
‘With regards to your colleagues, you betrayed them, you lied to them and in a small department you created an immense amount of difficulty and upset which is likely to take an extremely long time for those you deceived to get over.
‘You abused the position of responsibility that you were given and in a relatively planned and sophisticated way.’
Elrick had joined Harrow CQC as a manager in July 2018.
Mr Bailie told the court: ‘As part of that role he had varying responsibility including elective and non-elective services and childcare, mental health services.
‘In administering those services he had a budget responsibility and could invoice up to £50,000 at a time.
‘In January 2021 a member of staff at NHS harrow was conducting a routine audit on invoices submitted by outside suppliers.
‘He came across an outside supplier by the name of Tree of Andre and because of the unusual name and he had not noticed it previously, he conducted some checks.
‘He recognised that the companies were linked to an employer called Thomas Elrick.
‘This again raised suspicions. He conducted checks on invoices and found no material to support those invoices. He suspected fraud.
‘Mr Elrick had authorised and submitted false invoices for Harrow CQC and generated them through Tree of Andre Services Ltd.
‘All of Tree of Andres’ invoices were allocated to Mr Elrick and therefore he was the one approving the invoices and once approved the payment was automatically paid by the NHS to the defendant’s bank account.’
Michael Elrick used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle that saw him dine in top restaurants and jet across the globe, Harrow Crown Court heard
In a statement expressing his remorse, Elrick wrote: ‘I cannot truly express in words the regret and remorse I feel for my actions in relation to Harrow CQC and its patients.
‘I have spent my career helping people and what I did in Harrow is clearly contrary to this. I have no excuse, I was overwhelmed by feelings and allowed them to control my actions.
‘I wish I could turn back the clock but I know that I cannot and I sincerely apologise to the patients at Harrow and to my former colleagues.
‘I am not a bad person, I believe I am fundamentally a good person who made some very bad and dishonest decisions, for which I take whole responsibility for.
‘My actions and poor judgement have had a significant impact on my family.
‘I accept the need for severe punishment for my crime and will live with the consequence for the rest of my life.’
The NHS Counter Fraud Authority said: ‘The money defrauded was used to enjoy the lifestyle he had become accustomed to and that he wanted more. The fraud had become an addiction and he was aware that he would be caught.’
Elrick, of Vesuvius Drive, Motherwell, admitted a charge of fraud by abuse of position, between 12 August 2018 and 31 December 2020.
A hearing at Southwark Crown Court will take place on 1 December to claw back Elrick’s ill-gotten gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk