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Four individuals have been sentenced for their involvement in a £6m NHS contract fraud that investigators deemed “outrageous”. Gavin Brown and Adam Sharoudi leveraged their relationships with senior health service employees Gavin Cox and Alan Hush to secure lucrative telecoms contracts from 2010 to 2017. An investigation into Oricom Ltd, established by Brown and Sharoudi, revealed that Hush and Cox provided the company with “commercially sensitive information” in exchange for £88,000 worth of cash, gifts, and holidays.
Brown and Sharoudi, directors of Oricom, received sentences of seven and eight years, respectively, while Hush and Cox were sentenced to eight and six years, respectively. During sentencing, Lord Arthurson described the men as “self-serving, arrogant, and mendacious”, highlighting that their actions had eroded public trust in NHS management. The group’s criminal activities were exposed following the theft of two NHS-issued mobile phones, which led to the discovery of incriminating text messages and emails on various electronic devices.
Oricom’s fraudulent activities involved the acquisition and use of £5,719,244 in “criminal property” paid by several NHS entities, including NHS Lothian, NHS Grampian, and others. One contract alone was valued at £3.1m. The offices of Oricom were raided by NHS Scotland Counter Fraud Services investigators in 2015 due to suspicions surrounding the manner in which contracts were secured. Despite being founded in a shed in Irvine, Ayrshire in 2008, Oricom later relocated to a larger office space in Irvine.
Hush, who held managerial positions in NHS telecommunications departments, received various gifts and benefits in exchange for aiding Oricom in securing contracts. Cox, who served as head of IT and infrastructure at NHS Lanarkshire, denied providing Oricom with preferential information to secure business advantages. The court heard about the material benefits and experiences Cox received, including holiday vouchers and hospitality packages. NHS Scotland counter-fraud services head, Gordon Young, condemned the actions of the individuals involved as “outrageous”, emphasizing the betrayal of trust within the health service system
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