Hospital manager billed taxpayers for iPads and TV

A TRUSTED hospital boss who stole from his NHS employers in a bid to solve serious personal money problems, has been given a suspended 12-month prison sentence.

John White (45), who was stores maintenance manager at the Royal Oldham Hospital, was told he was guilty of a "grave breach of trust".

Judge Stuart Driver gave him 12 months concurrent on each of seven counts of fraud, but told him he felt able to suspend the sentence for two years.

White was also ordered to repay the sum of £2,614.80 to the Acute Pennine Hospitals NHS Trust.

White had vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but a trial at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court was dramatically halted when he switched his pleas to guilty.

The court had been told that he had deliberately doctored purchase orders to obtain expensive electrical items for himself including iPads, microwaves and a TV set.

The trial jury heard that White who had serious financial problems at the time, took advantage of weaknesses in the administration system of the 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 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 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.

One purchase order approved by his bosses included 300 fluorescent light tubes, but in the subsequent delivery signed for by White, the tubes had been swapped for an iPad.

The jury was told that on occasions, he would telephone a supplier after a legitimate order, asking for unapproved electrical items to be added.

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