Fraud DO avoids prison

A dispensing optician convicted of fraud (News 06.07.12) escaped a custodial term at sentencing at Lewes Crown Court last week. Iqbal Nabi was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and a two-year mental health treatment order by Judge David Rennie.

Nabi was accused of fraudulently claiming for £5,000 of NHS sight tests, glasses and contact lenses from January-October 2009. After an eight-day trial, the jury took 30 minutes to consider its verdict, reported NHS Protect (News 06.07.12), which instigated the investigations into Nabi's conduct at the New Global Vision practice in Hastings.

The sentencing was rescheduled on a number of occasions as Nabi's mental state was called into question. In one instance, he arrived at court looking visibly shaken and repeatedly mumbled words and phrases. NHS Protect said mental assessments on Nabi at the time could not tell if he was a malingerer or genuinely mentally ill. A report in the Hastings Observer claimed that Nabi did not attend last week's sentencing after his wife reported that he had tried to seize control of the car while she was driving.