Dentists jailed for cheating patients

Two Midland dentists were today behind bars for fraud after cheating patients and the NHS out of thousands of pounds.

Jaspal Singh Bachada, aged 37, of Red Lake Drive, Stourbridge pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud, one relating to money conned out of the NHS and the other relating to defrauding patients.

Co-accused Ikhlaq Hussain, 38, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, was found guilty of the same charges following a trial which was held earlier this year.

At a sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court Hussain was given 30 months in jail, to run concurrently for each charge. Bachada was sentenced to 20 months after Judge Robert Juckes gave him credit for his guilty plea.

During the hearing, the court was told that Bachada was practising as an NHS dentist at a surgery in Blackfriars Avenue, Droitwich despite not having an NHS licence from the South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Patients paid Bacahda a total of £81,450.71 for NHS treatment over the two-year scam while he also received an estimated £20,000 from the NHS for this work.

The court heard Hussain helped his business partner claim money through other dentists at the practice who were licensed.

Bachada also put a number of payment claims through his practice at The Hollies in Hagley Road, Stourbridge.

At the same time they were charging NHS patients for private treatments.

Judge Juckes said the pair, who had bought the practice together in March 2002, had known NHS dentists were in demand at the time and marketed their surgery as such.

The pair were found loading a van with filing cabinets containing hundreds of patient records.

Of the 2,234 record cards requested, only 745 were disclosed, many of them only partially.