IT specialist sentenced for stealing NHS computer equipment

An IT specialist has been sentenced after he stole computer equipment from the hospital he was working at.

NHS Protect’s Fraud and Corruption Reporting Line received an anonymous tip that IT specialist Scott Gill had been stealing computer equipment from Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and selling them on eBay.

The tip lead to further investigations which found that the equipment he had sold on eBay matched the serial numbers of computers used by the trust, some of which had been reported stolen by Gill during an alleged burglary.

Gill had worked as an IT specialist at Doncaster and Bassetlaw since 2005.

He pleaded guilty to the theft at Doncaster Magistrates Court earlier in April 2016 and must serve 250 hours of community service, as well as pay the trust £5,000 in compensation.

Mark Bishop, counter fraud specialist at the trust, said Gill had stolen NHS property and “sold it on eBay for his own personal gain”.

“Hospital equipment is precious and should not have been abused in this way. This conviction will hopefully act as a deterrent to others who might consider stealing from the National Health Service,” he said. 

Kevin Cane, area anti-fraud manager at NHS Protect, said: “NHS Protect fully supports the actions of the trust in this case. Criminals should not assume that the theft of items such as this will go undetected.”

NHS Protect is part of the NHS Shared Business Authority, an arm’s length body of the Department of Health. It works to identify and tackle crime across the health service.