Fraud trial boss changes his pleas to guilty

THE TRIAL of a trusted hospital boss who stole from his NHS employers was dramatically halted after he switched his pleas to guilty.

John White (45) who had been maintenance stores manager at the Royal Oldham Hospital, doctored purchase orders to obtain expensive electrical items for himself including iPads, microwaves and a TV set.

A jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court had been told that White, who had serious financial problems at the time, took advantage of weaknesses in the admin system of Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and his bosses’ trust in him.

He was only caught out when an electrical supplies company telephoned the Trust to chase up payment of an order quoting a purchase order code that did not exist.

A fraud investigation was launched when shortly afterwards concerns were raised over another order. In all it was found that there were serious irregularities in seven separate cases involving more than £3,000 of items the Trust had known nothing about.

The trial jury had heard three days of prosecution evidence when White announced that he wanted to change his pleas to guilty on all seven counts of fraud against him. He will be sentenced next month.

He had previously denied having ordered any of the unapproved items, claiming one of his bosses was waging a vendetta against him.

Ben Lawrence prosecuting, had told the court that White, of Newstead, Fallinge, Rochdale, had used a number of methods to order the electrical items including substituting them for legitimate hospital supplies costing the same amount.

The jury was told that at the time the frauds were committed – between May 2012 and January 2013 – White had been overdrawn at the bank and heavily in debt.