Cardiff fraud doctor Anthony Madu jailed over £70k NHS fraud

A disgraced doctor who failed to pay back more than £70,000 he swindled from the NHS has been jailed for two years.

Gynaecologist Dr Anthony Madu, 46, secretly carried out locum work at hospitals while firstly suspended and later on paid sick leave from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

He was found guilty of six counts of fraud in 2014 but was spared jail on condition he paid back the money.

But Swansea magistrates heard he had not done so.

Nigerian-born Madu, of Woolwich, London, continued to work for other health boards while on paid leave, including in Manchester, Yorkshire, and the Midlands.

The cost to the four hospitals he defrauded was said to be £240,000 and his 2014 trial at Newport Crown Court heard he had transferred £95,000 to a Nigerian bank account.

Speaking at the time, prosecutor Christian Jowett said Madu, a specialist registrar, had not told his employers about his additional work, or his two locum agencies about being on sick leave, which he was legally obliged to do.

"He continued to work and receive payment from both Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and his work in England," he added.

Madu was suspended and put on extended leave by the health board in 2009 over allegations about his conduct towards other staff and claims he had falsified his training record.

From January 2010, he submitted sick notes on three different occasions, saying he could not work because of stress.

But the doctor, who earned close to £100,000 a year, went on to do locum work worth about £69,000 with three NHS trusts in England while still earning more than £29,000 from his employers in Wales.

In June 2016 Madu was ordered to pay £73,000 back to the NHS within six months, an order which he appealed.

After he failed to repay it he was jailed for two years.