Health chief stole £50k from NHS and used dead wife's email to cover his tracks
A shameless fraudster stole more than £500,000 from the NHS and used his dead wife’s email account to cover his tracks.
Thomas Elrick abused his position of power in the NHS to approve invoices up to £50,000 to a company called Tree of Andre Therapy Services Limited, registered under his husband's name. He splurged £100,000 on holidays to Dubai, Hong Kong, the Maldives, and Switzerland, a court heard.
The 56-year-old man, who was assistant managing director for planned and unscheduled care at Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in northwest London, sent an email to his bosses, which claimed to be from Tree of Andre, providing anonymised patient details where care was provided.
The email was sent from the email address of Carolyn Platt, Elrick’s wife who died eight years before. He also used his sister's name and the name of a nurse he had worked with, without their knowledge, My London reports.
Elrick stole more than £500,000 from the NHS (LinkedIn)
The dad blew the money on his lavish lifestyle (Harrow Times / SWNS)But one year after this was sent, the fraud was uncovered during a routine audit when a staff member noticed the Tree of Andre was not registered on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website. The unusual company name prompted them to find it on Companies House, where they noticed it shared an address 380 miles away - in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire - with another company called Vesuvius Business Management - also directed by former employee Elrick.
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Elrick’s home, in Motherwell, was raided in November 2021 and he was arrested. In police interview, Elrick admitted the fraud and said his husband did not know he had used his name to register the company. Elrick later pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud by abuse of position at Willesden Magistrates’ Court and was jailed last month for three years.
Sentencing at Southwark Crown Court, her Honour Judge Francis told Elrick: "You are clearly someone who has cared deeply about those who were vulnerable and needed your support. Only, having attained these positions, you used your position to systematically defraud the local authority that had employed you to the tune of £564,000.
"For an NHS department already in deficit, you took away that opportunity for people to be treated for, for people to be helped. Vulnerable people who needed care did not get as much care as they needed."
The court was told the defendant also spent the ill-gotten gains on shopping sprees at Apple, Amazon, Boots, Curry's, and David Lloyd after signing off payments between August 2018 and December 2020. The ghost company didn't deliver any services to the already ailing CCG.
And the father had "no excuses" for the brazen behaviour, the judge was told. Hamish McCallum, defending, read a letter to the court, in which Elrick wrote: "I can give no excuses, I was overwhelmed by feelings and allowed them to control my actions. In doing so I forgot who I was and my core values, for which I am very sorry."
He also claimed he was "not a bad person" and revealed his daughters would struggle with him away in prison. "I accept my need for severe punishment for my crime," he added.
Senior Fraud Investigator at the NHS Counter Fraud Authority (CFA) Clive Wyke said: “Thomas Elrick held a position of trust within the NHS, holding a budget allowing him to conduct this calculated fraud. Elrick wanted extra cash to fund to fund a lifestyle of expensive holidays and shopping which he and his husband couldn’t afford.
"Not only did Elrick steal money from the NHS which would have been used to fund care in the Harrow area, he used the names of family members and friends to facilitate the fraud including using the name of his deceased wife.”
Head of Operations Richard Rippin said: “We are delighted with the sentence given out today, and I commend the work undertaken by our NHSCFA investigators and the Crown Prosecution Service who have brought this case to Court.
"This was a deliberate and calculated attack on the NHS, with the sole purpose of using money originally intended for patient care to live a lavish lifestyle at the expense of the taxpayer.
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"There is a counter fraud response working across the NHS to identify and pursue offenders like this and protect those funds needed for patient care. Work now continues to recover the monies taken and return them to the NHS in Harrow." The Crown is seeking the confiscation of Elrick's assets, with a hearing set for December 1.
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