Two pharmacists who conned the NHS out of £1.3million by dispensing fake prescriptions for cancer medication have each been jailed for six years.
Jignesh Patel, 46, and Rahil Patel, 42 (no relation), faked 1,639 chits using the identities of hundreds of real patients to claim the seven-figure sum from the NHS between 2014 and 2017.
Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group discovered that prescriptions from pharmacies did not match patient records, with most coming from the Wise Pharmacy on Fore Street in Edmonton, north London, jurors heard.
An investigation by NHS Counter Fraud Authority found Wise were dispensing two expensive 'Red List' drugs: Sprycel, used to treat leukaemia, and Noxafil, used to treat fungal infections during chemotherapy.
Jignesh Patel was the director of the Wise Pharmacy and a director of nearby wholesale pharmacy supplier Actipharm Limited, which was licensed by the medical regulator in 2008 and employed Rahil Patel since 2014.
Actipharm was allegedly used to export the prescriptions defrauded from the NHS.
The prescriptions affected four NHS areas: Barnet, Enfield, Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The two men denied but were found guilty of three counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of converting criminal property between 2014 and 2017.
Jignesh Patel, 46 (pictured), owns Wise Pharmacy in London and was found guilty of defrauding the NHS of £1.3 million. He has been jailed for six years
Rahil Patel, 42 (pictured), worked together with Jignesh for several years and has also been jailed for six years
Investigators identified 1,639 false prescriptions involving 440 patients, 24 GPs and 6,983 dispensed items.
Sentencing the two defendants, Judge Justin Cole said: 'This fraud deprived an already strained NHS of substantial funds.
'You deprived the community of precious drugs including drugs for leukaemia, all for the sake of personal greed.'
'You both intended to get rich on the re-sale of the drugs on the open market.'
'The overwhelming inference is that this offence was committed out of greed...'
'The loss to the NHS was a little over a million pounds.'
'No identifiable harm was caused to any patient in this case beyond the misuse of their identity. But the prosecution submits that significant harm was caused more widely to the community by this fraud.'
'You both used your positions to fraudulently obtain medicines within the EU single market.'
'This took considerable planning. I see little to distinguish between your roles or levels.'
Addressing Jignesh Patel the judge said: 'You will quite rightly be struck off as a pharmacist.'
Text messages between the defendants discussing drugs and obtaining false prescriptions were used at trial.
The two men were jailed for six years, and both were disqualified from acting as the director of a company for six years.
They will serve half their sentence in custody.
The police seized £190,000 during searches of Jignesh Patel's properties following his arrest in December 2017.
Earlier, prosecutor William Davis, KC, told jurors: '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 £1.3m.
'When a doctor issues a patient with a prescription to get the medicine, the patient takes it to a pharmacist. The pharmacist dispenses medication to the patient. They usually hold medicine in stock on the premises.
'Although many patients pay a charge, they don't pay the cost of the medicine itself. That cost is covered by all of us: the taxpayer.
'The pharmacy bears the upfront cost of the medication. When it dispenses, the pharmacy submits a claim for the cost of the medicine. Broadly speaking, the NHS reimburses this.
'The prosecution case is that these two defendants submitted claims to the NHS for large numbers of completely false prescriptions.
'It's a sinister feature of the evidence in this case, the names of hundreds of NHS patients were used on these false prescriptions. They do exist, but the evidence shows they were simply not prescribed by any doctor.
'Investigators identified some 1,636 false prescriptions which were submitted by the Wise Pharmacy in a period between 2014 and 2017.
'The motive for submitting false prescriptions was to sell the drugs because the NHS had paid for the drugs. Selling them on meant pure profit for these defendants.'
Despite it being 'highly unusual', investigators found 150 prescriptions of the two high-value drugs were dispensed from the Wise Pharmacy between January 2015 and June 2016.
Actipharm made around £780,000 selling the drugs to two wholesalers in the European Union – when membership allowed free trade.
Five other medicines were identified alongside Sprycel and Noxafil: Atripla, Eviplera, Tobramycin, Truvada and Viread.
The NHSCFA intends to recover the stolen funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Jignesh Patel, of Princes Avenue, Palmers Green, and Rahil Patel, of Churston Avenue, Upton Park, denied the charges but were convicted of 12 counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of converting criminal property between 2014 and 2017.