David Welsh, 49, from Plymstock near Plymouth, and Michael Brass, 43, from Liverpool, were found to have conspired to defraud the NHS and to pervert the course of justice, at the end of a one-month trial at Plymouth Crown Court.
Welsh, who used to run commercial and sport diving training and chamber recompression services at Plymouth's Fort Bovisand, and Brass recruited pub drinkers at up to ?200 a time as fictitious sufferers of decompression illness requiring recompression treatment.
Prosecuting QC Michael Filton told the court that, between 1998 and 2002, once in possession of names, addresses, dates of birth and national insurance numbers, Welsh billed 12 health authorities or trusts around the country for 37 bogus treatments at ?6500 each, totalling ?240,500.
The fraud was uncovered when police decided to investigate cases of two divers from Liverpool supposedly treated at Fort Bovisand.
A raid on Welsh's home yielded a screwed-up piece of paper carrying, in Brass's handwriting, the names, addresses, birth and national insurance details of some of the individuals used to make wrongful claims of chamber treatments. Some claimed that they did not know how their details would be used.
'They [health authorities or trusts] did not challenge it very much and it therefore turned out to be quite a simple fraud to conduct,' said Filton. 'It was very easy money from just filling in forms and making up information using personal details, and the money came in.'
Judge Ian Leeming, QC, who will sentence Welsh and Brass in September, said that they face possible jail terms. Two other men charged, Welsh's brother Raymond, 47, from Harlow in Essex and James Chandler, 43, from Liverpool, were cleared by the jury of involvement in the fraud. |
