A jailed accountant has been ordered to pay back more than £2m he stole from two NHS trusts and used to fund a property portfolio, or serve more time in prison
Trevor Cosson, the former head of financial accounting at two East Sussex NHS trusts, was found guilty of defrauding the NHS of £2.2m and received a prison sentence of five years and four months after a trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in July 2014.
In a hearing at Blackfriars Crown Court this week, Judge Blacksell confiscated £2,161,758 from Cosson, who faces an additional six years in prison if he fails to pay over this sum.
The judge dismissed attempts by the defence to take £217,000 which Cosson had given to friends off the total, saying: ‘I understand it is very difficult for fraudsters in prison to get back the money they benefited from, but I'm not terribly sympathetic.’
Cosson, from Hastings, committed the frauds between 2008 and 2011 when working for Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust (PCT) and East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT. His trial heard evidence he used the money to buy 11 properties in Sussex and London, which will now need to be sold to pay back the amount taken.
The confiscation order represents the largest amount that NHS Protect, the organisation responsible for tackling fraud in the health service, has been awarded under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Richard Hampton, head of external engagement and services, NHS Protect, said: ‘Today is a good day for taxpayers and NHS patients. NHS Protect has recovered over two million pounds for patient care that was stolen by Trevor Cosson, a senior NHS finance manager. Cosson is already in jail serving a long prison term after NHS Protect's successful fraud and money-laundering investigation last year.
‘Cosson's staggering dishonesty and greed has really let down the vast majority of NHS workers - most of whom do hard, honest work for a lot less money than he was paid.’
Cosson’s crimes first came to light when the PCTs he had previously worked for were being disbanded and the newly-formed Sussex and Surrey Commissioning Support Unit carried out an audit.
NHS Protect investigators found that Cosson had manipulated the internal payments systems of both of the PCTs he worked for. Standing orders were set up in the name of regular suppliers but the payments were actually credited to bank accounts he controlled. Between 2008 and 2011 Cosson authorised £810,000 worth of standing order payments, and £1.4m worth of CHAPS payments.
