Fraudster obtained senior NHS roles by lying about qualifications

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By Daniel Pye

A former NHS employee has been sentenced to four years in prison for lying about graduating from the University of Oxford and holding senior posts.

Amran Hussain, 40, of French Street, Westerham, defrauded the health service out of almost £170,000 after fraudulently obtaining 13 non-clinical roles within NHS organisations.

He received his sentence after pleading guilty to three charges of fraud by false representation last August.

Hussain was caught by the NHS Counter Fraud Authority (CFA) following an offer for the role of deputy chief operating officer Urgent Care/Transformation and Operations at Devon Partnership NHS Trust (DPT) in 2021.

Hussain claimed in his application to be employed as Director of Transformation and Improvement at Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT).

But DPT’s pre-employment checks on the electronic staff record system found no evidence of this and CWPT subsequently confirmed that they had never employed Hussain.

Upon further investigation by the trust, it was revealed that Hussain had submitted false references in support of his applications. One of his referees was fictitious, whilst other references were linked to his own NHS email accounts.