'No smoking adviser' jailed for pocketing £90,000 in NHS cash » Health » 24dash.com

A judge hit out today at the Government's target-driven culture as he jailed a "no smoking adviser" for 18 months for pocketing a £90,000 NHS fortune.

He said the scheme to convince addicts to kick the habit relied on members of the public with little training and was distinctly "amateurish" and "cavalier".

Judge John Hillen said: "This scheme has properly been described as pseudo-medical.

"To pay lay people, albeit briefly trained, as stop smoking counsellors for recruiting and spending a few sessions with smokers is an astonishing way to spend public money."

The way Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust operated the scheme "without any checks whatsoever is an extraordinary derogation of responsibility," he said.

"This was all driven by the need to meet targets and it is a feature of the target-driven culture of the governments of this country that it can lead to the distortion of proper functions and can lead, as in this case, to the opportunity for fraud."

In the dock was jobless Harry Singer who recognised the lax regime as an "opportunity" to print money by inventing an army of imaginary "quitters".

The 55-year-old, described outside court by police as a "Walter Mitty", used most of the money to pose as the community philanthropist.

It bought him respect, friends and influence, and helped him escape both the loneliness of his failed marriage and lack of business success.

According to a library of bogus paperwork, he chalked up an "unprecedented performance" - 27 times better than the next best adviser
- resulting in him singled-handedly shattering the local target and winning a 2006 nomination for the Stop Smoking Supporter Award.

London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard that in the process he claimed £45 for each of the 2,017 imaginary "successes" achieved in an impossibly short six months.

One form in his name even suggested he had got himself to give up.

But his greed seeded his downfall when those running the project tried to find out why he was so good, only to discover most of his so-called clients had never heard of him.

They had been conned into providing their details to paid canvassers apparently gathering views on the new smoking ban, and then had the information effectively hijacked.

In reality many had never smoked, while others he allegedly cured with half a dozen phone calls had kicked the habit unaided years before.

Among them was art gallery owner Robert Tannock, who gave up nearly a quarter of a century earlier.

Others, including a honeymooner, were enjoying the sun abroad when supposedly undergoing support sessions in London.

Singer, of Nevern Place, Earls Court, south-west London, maintained he had genuinely believed some clients received support sessions from his canvassers - something they were not qualified to do - while others lied about not signing up to the programme at all.

He spoke of finding clients in bars and clubs, forming them into groups and getting them to compete in giving up.

Denying he was "money-driven", he insisted: "I have been a successful businessman in my life. I have had the Porsche, had the gold Rolex watch, and a home in Chelsea. Now all I want to do is help the community."

The former caretaker, who spoke of being an ex-contracts manager for Shell and once having three oil trading companies, told jurors he was currently running another venture importing Mongolian vodka.

But those trying him at London's Blackfriars Crown Court heard the divorcee had been on Job Seekers' Allowance during the fraud, and had lived in the YMCA before moving to his rented flat.

And after four days of deliberations they convicted him of 18 specimen false accounting charges between March and October 2006, and one count of concealing criminal property.

Passing sentence the judge told the impassive defendant: "I know the jury and I and anyone else listening to this case would have been appalled at the cavalier way in which the taxpayers' money was dealt with by the Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust and the positively amateurish way in which the finance department failed to have any sufficient checks on the money it was paying out on the no smoking service.

"That allowed a fraud to occur which would have been obvious to anyone on the most superficial inquiry. This was not a sophisticated fraud."

The judge said even after the body had been told something was amiss "the fraud was allowed to continue with the result a large sum of public money designated for health care was lost".

He continued: "I am not going to name names but the public will be very surprised if there have not been resignations over this matter.

"It is extraordinary that no conflict of interest between you as a member of the Primary Care Trust, as a volunteer on the board, and also as running this scheme... was identified.

"No-one of course can criticise efforts in preventative medicine, but this scheme has properly been described by the defence as pseudo-medical."

The judge said the way thousands of pounds of NHS cash was repeatedly paid into an account belonging to the "vague body of the Threshold Resident Association, which effectively had no officers, no minutes, no meetings, without any checks whatsoever, is an extraordinary derogation of duty and responsibility by the Primary Care Trust".

After criticising the Government's "target-driven culture", he continued: "You were aware of the amorphous nature of the scheme that was being operated by QUIT (the charitable organisation running it on behalf of the Trust), and its possible misuse, and you were aware of the shortcomings of the Primary Care Trust's finance department."

Knowing this, he said, you deliberately pressured the department "through your force of character to speed up the payments".

But the judge said there was "one major mitigating factor".

That was "the greater part of the public money you defrauded was paid to others, buying televisions for the elderly, paying for social events in the community and helping those in financial need and not to line your pockets."

He even paid for a Burns Night celebration in a local church.

"Some may have seen you as the neighbourhood busybody but I am prepared to be more charitable than that. You were offering your time and skills in the service of others but you were also offering the money you had fraudulently obtained.

"The use of that money was by no means entirely altruistic. Having apparently failed in business and your career... and having behind you a failed marriage, this community work was your reason for living.

"You were seeking to give yourself a source of funds to enhance your standing in the community by the distribution of this money in a way that would give you respect that otherwise in your life you had failed to achieve.

"The result is that your good works have turned to dust, that your good character has gone, that your reputation no longer exists and you are a ruined man who is unlikely to hold any public office or position of trust again," the judge added.

The court heard Singer used to live in YMCA digs in Walthamstow.

But after swapping it for a "small" one-bed housing association property in Earl's Court, he set about establishing himself as a "mainstay" in the community.

The divorcee became co-ordinator for three Neighbourhood Watch Committees and even helped police find people they "wished to speak to".

He also joined the Chelsea Police and Community Working Group, as well as the Primary Care Trust's board and other bodies.

And at the same time as he was plundering NHS coffers with one hand, he was using the other to help the Trust's Financial Recovery Group reverse its £26 million deficit for 2005/06.

Although the residents' association he boasted of chairing was effectively defunct it did have a bank account through which he "laundered" all but £9,500 of his ill-gotten gains.

None has been recovered.

Andrew Evans, prosecuting, told the court the false accounting charges concerned forms detailing six sessions supposedly completed by would-be quitters during a four week stop smoking course.

They were then submitted to QUIT.

"However, the forms he submitted were false because the sessions he had recorded... had not taken place," said counsel.

"They were approached by various agents he had recruited simply to sign up names in which forms could be completed in order to maximise the amount of money which could be derived from the scheme," he said.

"They were subsequently distressed to discover their personal details... had been obtained under false pretences and used by the defendant to facilitate a series of fraudulent claims on the health service."

The barrister said the extent of Singer's apparent success proved his downfall.

Both QUIT and the Trust were puzzled by the defendant's claim his 2,000 plus "cures" represented a 30% success rate.

That would have meant he recruited and processed well over 6,000 eager hopefuls, an almost impossible feat considering the time scale.

And in stark contrast to the national average of just 7% of quitters giving up without nicotine patches or other pharmacotherapy support, hardly any of Singer's pretend customers had apparently needed them.

The organisations were also perplexed why an unusually high 96% of those who seemed to kick the habit ticked a confidentiality box declining follow-up contact.

The charity and trust eventually called him in for a meeting to "discuss" his "unique" success rate.

Even after his arrest he could not resist the grand gesture.

Given a date to return to the police station, he produced a diary with a flourish, and said that would be fine as long as it was before 10am "as I am having lunch with Joanna Lumley".

Diana Middleditch, chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust, said: "As the local NHS we often rely on our partners in the community to help us to reach and improve the health of our diverse populations.

"The actions of one individual should not detract from the excellent work of the majority of our community advisers who have a genuine interest in working alongside the local NHS to improve the health of our communities."

A Department of Health spokesman added: "This year £56 million was allocated to the NHS for smoking cessation services. We know that NHS stop smoking services have been hugely effective in helping people quit."

Dermid McCausland, managing director of the NHS Counter Fraud Service, which carried out the investigation, said: "Harry Singer stole public money that should have been used to help the NHS to provide care for patients.

"This behaviour is completely unacceptable and we hope this conviction will warn potential fraudsters that we will not tolerate the loss of valuable NHS resources for the personal gain of a dishonest minority."