A SENIOR health manager from Hagley who helped defraud the NHS out of £153,600 meant for elderly and vulnerable patients over winter has been spared jail.

Lisa Hill, 51, of Stourbridge Road, admitted sending a false invoice to Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG when she was their senior commissioning manager in March 2013.

Alongside clinical lead Dr Ian Walton, 59, of Stourbridge Road, Wombourne, the pair raised the invoice from mental health charity Primhe, on whose board they both sat.

The money was taken from the CCG’s ‘Innovations’ funding, and despite both knowing the funding was no longer available, the money was signed off in error.

It was then transferred into the bank account of Walton Hill associates – a private company of which they were both directors of – and £57,161 was spent on training GPs.

A further £61,946 was left for future training, with the remaining deficit used as an "opportunity to earn £34,000 for yourselves", Judge Paul Farrer QC said.

Speaking at Birmingham Crown Court on December 20, he described their actions as "arrogant and dishonest" but conceded the pair were not motivated by greed.

He said: "You each held positions of considerable trust and responsibility within the organisation.

"You had allowed your passion for mental health services to override both your judgement and honesty.

"The victim of your fraud is an arm of the NHS and the inevitable effect of your actions is to erode public confidence in a vital public resource.

"Your actions have now led to the loss of your good names and the ruin of reputations which you spent 30 years building."

The court heard that the £153,600 had been put aside by the CCG to support vulnerable and elderly people in the area as part their "Winter Pressure" budget.

The judge said the pair were "professional, caring and compassionate individuals" and, partly for that reason, he gave them both two-year jail sentences suspended for two years.

They must also pay back £76,800 each within three months.

Andy Williams, Accountable Officer at NHS Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG, said: "We welcome the sentencing of former team members Lisa Hill and Dr Ian Walton.

"Patients and the public can be assured that we responded swiftly as soon as we were made aware of the matter by an internal whistleblower.

"The CCG has taken the strongest action possible to prevent such fraudulent activity from ever happening again.

"The protection of public money and NHS assets is paramount and we are absolutely committed to safeguarding them both now and in the future."

Sue Frith, Managing Director of NHS Protect, added: "Both their peers and the public will be dismayed by the criminality of Hill and Walton, who abused the high level of trust and respect they were once held in.

"The argument that some of the stolen money was constructively spent can never justify defrauding the NHS."

Mother-of-three Hill and GP Walton – who had a practice in Tipton at the time – must also complete 200 hours unpaid work and pay £7,500 prosecution costs within six months.