A disgraced doctor who moonlighted on paid sick leave was today jailed after failing to pay back nearly £100,000 he fiddled from the NHS.
Gynaecologist Dr Anthony Madu, 46, secretly carried out well-paid locum work at hospitals while getting sick pay from another hospital.
Madu – who was described in court as ‘irresponsible and dishonest’ – sent £95,000 to a Nigerian bank account.
He was spared immediate jail to be given a two-year suspended sentence as long as he paid back £98,000 to the NHS.
But Madu failed to pay it back – and he was jailed for two years for his fraud.
Prosecutor Christian Jowett said: ‘The doctor has transferred £95,000 to a bank account in Nigeria.’
Nigerian-born Madu was given the specialist registrar obstetrics gynaecology post at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, in August 2009.
Specialist registrar Madu was convicted of six charges of fraud by working at hospitals across England while employed at the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
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Mr Jowett said: ‘He was legally obliged to tell his employers about his work but he did not do so.
‘He was also legally obliged to tell two locum agencies that he was on extended leave and had been granted sickness leave.
‘But he continued to work and receive payment from both Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and his work in England.’
But he was suspended and put on extended leave two months later over allegations about his conduct towards other staff and claims he had falsified his training record.
He then submitted sick notes on three different occasions, saying he could not work because of stress but then worked as a locum at four hospitals in England.
Madu, of Woolwich, London, continued to work for other health boards including in Manchester, Yorkshire, and the Midlands.
The cost to the four hospitals he defrauded was said to be £240,000.
At the trial the court heard Madu ‘was nowhere near’ the level of clinical competence expected of a year five specialist registrar.
Judge David Wyn Morgan spared Madu an immediate jail sentence at the time because a psychiatric report said he would be at ‘high risk’ of suicide if he was jailed.
At that time he was given a two-year suspended sentence – but ordered to pay back the cash.
Judge Morgan said: ‘In pursuing a medical career in the UK you have overstretched yourself and have resorted to dishonesty to cover up your shortcomings.
‘These convictions will make it impossible for you to practice medicine in the UK ever again.’
In June Madu was ordered to pay £73,000 back to the NHS within six months. Madu appealed that order.
He failed to repay the £73,000 and appeared at Swansea Crown Court where he was jailed for two years.
Judge David Wynn Morgan told Madu: ‘In pursuing a medical career in the UK you have overstretched yourself and have resorted to dishonesty to cover up your shortcomings.
‘These convictions will make it impossible for you to practice medicine in the UK ever again.’
Cheryl Hill, deputy operational fraud manager at the NHS Counter Fraud Service Wales, said: ‘He has done his utmost to avoid paying back any of the stolen NHS money.
‘Madu has therefore been jailed for two years for his failure to repay. The defrauded money will remain outstanding even after he has served his sentence.
‘The message is clear: defrauding the NHS results in criminal convictions and huge damage to careers. We are relentless in pursuing those who defraud the NHS.’
