Stole from sick tospend on herself

Kirkfieldbank woman Jodie Hannah used her position of trust at Lanark’s doctors practice to steal almost £70,000 of cash earmarked for locum GP’s and other services for patients.
Money meant for the treatment of Woodstocks patients were salted away into private accountsMoney meant for the treatment of Woodstocks patients were salted away into private accounts
Money meant for the treatment of Woodstocks patients were salted away into private accounts

The 39-year-old was entrusted with the finances of the troubled practice and salted away the cash between July, 2012 and May, 2017.

Airdrie Sheriff Court heard this before Hannah was jailed for 19 months for what Sheriff Frank Pieri
described as a breach of trust at the then Lanark Doctors practice, now
the Woodstock Medical Centre.

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Hannah had worked for the practice since 2006 and was given sole responsibility for its finances in 2011; her duties included ensuring the payment of locum doctors and other staff members.

Instead, she admitted that she diverted £68,845.91 into four separate accounts.

One was that of a friend who had been told by Hannah that she was concealing the cash from a former partner.

She got away with the embezzlement for almost five years until the then-practice manager Thomas Neilson decided to look at the practice’s books.

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Hannah tried to hinder his investigations by claiming to have forgotten bank account passwords.

Eventually he got access to the accounts and noticed suspicious transactions.

The police and Royal Bank of Scotland fraud investigators were called in and Hannah’s deceit was exposed.

The court heard that every six weeks the NHS would pay hundreds of thousands of pounds into the bank account of the practice and Hannah started to transfer money from there to her own accounts.