November 1st, 2016

Aberdeen pharmacist faces jail after VAT fraud and prescriptions forgery

A pharmacist has admitted a VAT fraud of more than £200,000. Conrad Chau also admitted forging prescriptions in order to get pharmaceutical firms to send him more drugs, which had been subject to control measures, so he could sell them on.

He had altered addresses on invoices, as well as failing to pass invoices to his accountant. He also admitted 12 fraud charges and two attempted fraud charges.

Chau, whose address was given in court as Wellside Avenue, Kingswells, Aberdeen, wrote fake prescriptions, receiving £5,606.22 worth of discounted prescription products from two different pharmaceutical firms.

It was when this was discovered that the VAT fraud came to light.

The prescription offences took place between February and June 2013, with the VAT fraud happening between April 2012 and July 2014.

The fraud was discovered when a comparison was made between the genuine prescriptions issued by local GPs and received by the NHS, and the forged versions of the same documents, which had been sent to the pharmaceutical companies.

“Engaging in criminality to wholesale medicines erodes the trust between community pharmacists, GPs, pharmaceutical companies, patients and NHS Scotland.”

“Counter Fraud Services will continue to work in partnership with all health boards and law enforcement partners in Scotland to prevent, deter and detect fraud and will pursue fraudsters whenever they are identified.”

Source : Aberdeen pharmacist faces jail after VAT fraud and prescriptions forgery – Evening Express (7/10/16)