Doctor and husband jailed for selling stolen PPE on eBay
3 hours agoCatriona RentonBBC Scotland News
PA MediaAn NHS doctor and her husband have been jailed for 10 months each after selling stolen hospital PPE on eBay during the Covid pandemic.
Dr Attiya Sheikh, 46, and 48-year-old Omer Sheikh made almost £8,000 from selling the personal protective equipment as the virus was spreading throughout the UK in 2020.
The pair admitted selling stolen gloves, face masks and wipes online at a time when the NHS was struggling to get hold of them.
Sheriff Sukhwinder Gill said the doctor had committed an “egregious breach of trust” while working at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride.
The couple were exposed after NHS Scotland supplier Fannin spotted its products for sale on the auction website.
Attiya Sheikh’s lawyer, John Scullion KC, told Paisley Sheriff Court that his client bitterly regretted her actions.
He said: “She accepts full responsibility. She acknowledges the significant breach of trust the offence represents.”
The court heard that in July 2020, NHS Scotland counter fraud services began looking into the potential theft and resale of PPE.
The investigation identified four separate eBay accounts selling items such as gloves and wipes that were connected to the Sheikhs.
A warrant was granted to search their home in Thornliebank near Glasgow.
On the day of the search in October 2020, Mr Sheikh was in the house.
He directed the counter fraud specialists to the attic within the top floor flat where 121 boxes of rubber gloves were discovered, as well as a box of face masks.
Detectives found that the couple had been selling them online for £15 to £20 a box.
Attiya Sheikh initially claimed she did not steal the PPE from the hospital but was given it by another person from the hospital in the car park.
However, inquiries failed to identify that person.
Sentencing the pair, Sheriff Gill said they carried out their crime when “the world was in a heightened state of fear and anxiety” at the start of the pandemic.
She said: “The NHS was facing an unprecedented crisis. There was a severe shortage of PPE not only in this country but globally.
“As a doctor you clearly knew this PPE was essential for your colleagues’ safety and by extension their families.
“It is difficult for those of us who work day in day out within these courts to imagine a more egregious breach of trust not only in respect of your colleagues but of the general public.”
The maximum sentence was open to the judge was 12 months in jail.
This was reduced to 10 months because of the couple’s early guilty plea.
Profit from fears
Gordon Young, head of NHS Scotland counter fraud services, described the crime as “outrageous”.
He told BBC Scotland News: “To make a profit out of people’s fears and to make a profit out of a shortage of equipment that was really needed, it really is the opposite message to what the NHS stands for.”
He said that in monetary values, it was not the biggest fraud he had seen, but said it was an immoral one.
“This isn’t about the loss of the money,” he said.
“This is about someone in her position taking advantage of the health service and making a profit from it.”