'I get to look good by spending Halesowen's money': Senior manager at a Black Country NHS trust joked about spending public money before being jailed

Even before Alex Gandy colluded with ex wife Kaylee Wright with who he had two children and friend Matthew Lane to swindle Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust (ICB) of over £123,000, between August 2022 and December 2023, he was planning his scheme.

Gandy, a senior operational manager at the trust, was responsible for temporary workers and suppliers and was able to sanction payments to contractors when he cooked up the scheme from which he, Wright and Lane benefited

E-mails read out to Wolverhampton Crown Court dated January 10 2022 from Gandy to an unnamed person he tried to recruit were jokey in nature and told him how much the two could expect to earn.

One said: "So effectively you could be earning an extra £380 a week for not actually doing anymore ha-ha and I will be getting £190 a week and I get to spend more of Halesowen's money which makes me look good."

The recipient replied: "I know that would be amazing and a dream lol but I am about to become a dad and don't fancy doing it from prison."

But Gandy eventually went through with the scheme along with Wright and Lane, who he told the trust were working as a physicians assistant and part time paramedic respectively.

In fact they were not employed bythe trust and hadn't done any work on its behalf but Gandy set up false invoices for them which were paid into their accounts in good faith, then most of the money transferred to him.

The court heard that Lane received a total of 23 incoming payments totalling over £82,500 and Wright 12, totalling £40,890 over the period of the fraud

Gandy, who had worked for in the NHS for 20 years,  spent more than £92,000 of the fraudulently obtained money on gambling activities and transferred a further £12,000 to his own businesses based in Cleobury Mortimer, financial analysis revealed.

He had earlier admitted fraud by abuse of position.

Jailing him for two-and-a-half years, Judge Laura Hobson said although there was an underspend on the Trust's £5.5m annual budget which he was partly in charge of and he was encouraged to spend it, it should have been "used on services to the public, not to line his pockets".

She said: "The figure might not seem to be of a major impact given the budget of the trust but that is not the point, because however much it is, it is public money.

"You played a leading role in a sophisticated scheme carried out over a sustained period.

"Certainly you had a responsible job, a position of trust with a good salary and as we have seen there was significant planning involved in the crime."

She said she was satisfied Gandy had taken advantage of his ex-wife, who the court heard thought some of the payments were for their children and that it was a legitimate scheme.  But Wright, who the court heard was £20,000 in debt and unemployed at the time, was motivated by personal gain.

She noted all three were of previous good character and had shown genuine remorse and were trying to rebuild their lives.

Lane, of Bridge Street, Evesham, and Wright, of Lark Rise, Kidderminster had earlier both pleaded guilty to money laundering in relation to the fraud, 

Lane was given a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

Wright was handed an 18-month community order and was ordered to complete 25 days of rehabilitation activity.