IT engineer from Wrexham sentenced for £18,000 NHS fraud

An IT engineer who sold his employer’s brand new NHS laptops on E-bay has today been sentenced to 20 months at Mold Crown Court.

The criminal activity of IT engineer Neil Roberts 38, of Oak Meadows, Tanyfron first came to light via an anonymous tip-off.

The matter was referred to Karl Woodward, Local Counter Fraud Specialist for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), who made initial enquiries before North Wales Police took the lead on a full fraud investigation.

The investigation uncovered that Roberts had abused his full time NHS position as Computer Information Technology Engineer for BCUHB, based at Wrexham Maelor Hospital in Wrexham.

He stole a large quantity of new laptops from his employer which he was meant to have installed at various NHS Wales sites in North Wales, and even placed on their asset registers to cover his tracks.

What he really installed were old NHS computers that he had retrieved from storage, while he sold at least 32 of the brand new laptop computers (worth £18,000) on his eBay account, at low prices.

He was arrested at work and interviewed under caution in February 2017, but Roberts denied he had stolen any computers, giving a “no comment” interview, but a search of his house turned up a large amount of computer equipment.

On conducting further enquiries it transpired he had sold a substantial amount of computer hardware online that was traced directly back to BCUHB.

In January 2019 at Mold Crown Court, Roberts pleaded not guilty to a charge of Fraud by Abuse of Position, contrary to Section 4 of the Fraud Act 2006 – but in June he changed his plea to guilty, on the basis that he was not responsible for diverting computers away from other employees. On submission of further evidence, this basis for plea was abandoned by the defendant.

Roberts was dismissed from his job.

The NHS sites that received his substitute computers were spread across the BCUHB area.

Inspector Adam Williams said: “This has been a lengthy and complex investigation conducted with the assistance of staff members within BCUHB and members of the public across Great Britain.”

“The defendant in this case had taken full advantage of his position within the hospital to carry out and disguise his fraudulent behaviour over a number of years, including presenting himself as a reputable seller of computer hardware to unsuspecting customers online.

“The defendant, on pleading guilty to some aspects of the offence and not others, had been unwilling to accept full responsibility for his actions until the last minute when confronted with undeniable evidence of his offending.

“I am glad that the investigation is over and the defendant can now face the consequences of his actions, which ultimately impact on the resources of the police, local health board and the wider NHS.

“North Wales Police is committed to tackling fraud in all its forms and we have worked closely with staff within the ICT and Informatics departments within BCUHB to ensure a successful prosecution.”