Two Indian-origin pharmacists have been jailed for six years each in the UK after using fake prescriptions to obtain medicines worth around £1.3 million from the National Health Service (NHS), which prosecutors said were intended for resale in Europe, Daily Mail reported.Jignesh Patel, 46, and Rahil Patel, 42, were convicted of fraud by false representation and converting criminal property after submitting thousands of claims based on prescriptions that had not been issued by doctors. The offences took place between 2014 and 2017, with investigators identifying 1,639 fraudulent prescriptions linked to 440 patients.The case came to light when Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group found discrepancies between prescriptions submitted by pharmacies and patient records. Most of the suspicious claims were traced to Wise Pharmacy on Fore Street in Edmonton, north London.An investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Authority found that the pharmacy had dispensed high-cost medicines, including Sprycel, used to treat leukaemia, and Noxafil, prescribed to prevent or treat certain fungal infections in patients undergoing chemotherapy.Jignesh Patel was the director of Wise Pharmacy and also headed Actipharm Limited, a nearby pharmaceutical wholesaler. Rahil Patel had worked at Actipharm since 2014. Prosecutors said the wholesale business was used to sell medicines obtained through fraudulent prescriptions to buyers in the European Union.The scheme affected four NHS areas: Barnet, Enfield, Newham and Tower Hamlets. Investigators identified 6,983 dispensed items involving 24 general practitioners and hundreds of patients whose identities had been used without their prescriptions being authorised by doctors.“This case is about a fraud against the NHS which was committed by these two defendants. The fraud cost the NHS, and ultimately the taxpayer, about £1.3 million,” prosecutor William Davis KC told jurors during the trial.The prosecution said Actipharm received about £780,000 from selling the medicines to two wholesalers in the European Union, where the transactions took place during the period when the UK was part of the bloc’s single market.Investigators also found 150 prescriptions for the two high-value medicines had been dispensed by Wise Pharmacy between January 2015 and June 2016, a pattern described during the case as highly unusual. Five other medicines were identified in the investigation: Atripla, Eviplera, Tobramycin, Truvada and Viread.Text messages exchanged between the defendants about medicines and obtaining false prescriptions were presented as evidence at trial. Both men denied the charges but were found guilty.Sentencing them, Judge Justin Cole said the fraud had deprived an already strained NHS of substantial funds and diverted medicines, including drugs used to treat leukaemia, for personal gain.The judge said the defendants had intended to profit from reselling the medicines on the open market and that the offence involved considerable planning. He also said there was little to distinguish between their respective roles.The court heard that no identifiable direct harm to patients had been established beyond the misuse of their identities. However, the prosecution argued that the fraud had caused wider harm to the community.Both men were also disqualified from serving as company directors for six years. They will serve half of their prison sentences in custody.Police seized £190,000 during searches of Jignesh Patel’s properties after his arrest in December 2017. The NHS Counter Fraud Authority said it intended to pursue recovery of the funds through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
