Jailed: Willesden Green dentist who used fake patients to steal £780k from the NHS
Mistry had this surgery in Kentish Town (pic: Google) - Credit: Archant
A dentist from Willesden Green who invented thousands of patients and lied about treatments to steal more than £780,000 from the NHS has been jailed.
Jayantilal Bhikhabhai Mistry, 67, of Wren Avenue, claimed to have treated 3,360 patients at his surgery in Kentish Town between 1997 and 2013.
Blackfriars Crown Court heard some were real and others fictitious.
When investigators from NHS Protect’ raided his home they found dental records kept in fruit crates and Sainsbury’s shopping bags.
Dozens of people were registered at addresses they had never lived at, including a branch of a bank in Islington, almost 300 were at addresses that did not exist and 90 per cent of people he had treated could not be traced.
Mistry used real x-rays and falsified dental prescriptions using an official docket to try and deceive the NHS into thinking that his claims were genuine.
He completed treatment dates on some dental record cards in pencil which allowed him to amend names, dates and details if he was asked to prove those claims.
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He stole a total of £780,268 from the NHS of which £775,000 has been recovered.
Mistry must also pay £50,000 towards the NHS investigation.
He admitted false accounting and was jailed for three years.
Susan Frith, managing director of NHS Protect, said: “Like all dentists, Jayantilal Mistry was in a position of trust, but he totally abused that trust through repeated fraud on a grand scale over a long period of time.
“This shocking behaviour cost the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds but thanks to the actions of NHS Protect’s investigators he has already had to pay back £775,000 of it.
“All suspicions of fraud reported to NHS Protect will be followed up, and investigated wherever appropriate. We press for the prosecution of offenders and seek the strongest possible sanctions, so public money is not diverted from patient care.”
In November, Mistry was suspended by the General Dental Council for 18 months.
The suspension will be reviewed in April.
