GOC - Marshall we use

 An optometrist who provided inflated NHS claims has been suspended from practice for three months and fined £1,600.

Llandrindod Wells-based Stephen Giles Marshall was told by a GOC disciplinary committee this week that he could have been struck off.

Chairman Heather Wilcox said: 'Had it not been for the mitigating factors we would have expected to have imposed an erasure order.'

Marshall admitted serious professional misconduct in relation to claims for 11 patients used as specimen charges by investigators.

However, he argued that he had helped many needy people in the community. 'It is not part of my psyche that I was lining my own pocket from this,' he said, before detailing numerous incidents where his intervention had benefited the poor and deprived. He was backed by three character witnesses, one who told the committee that the four years Marshall had been waiting for the disciplinary hearing was 'punishment enough'.

Bradley Albuery, for the GOC, told the committee that the investigation had looked at NHS claims from 1994-2001, although the charges related only to 1999-2001. He said the optometrist had repaid £120,000, but £88,000 of that was the cost of the 'audit process'.

The committee was told that investigations began after the local health authority contacted an auditing service having found some claims which were 'not consistent with national or local patterns'. An accredited counter fraud specialist investigated in conjunction with the district auditor and looked at his claims from 1994-2001.

In 2001 they visited Marshall's practices seizing payment records, order forms, diaries and other documentation. Referring to four categories of 'generic mischief', Albuery said they involved overpayment for supplying items of lesser value, false claims for spectacles not replaced, claims for supplying bifocals that were not provided and different ones to those claimed for.

Albuery said the Council's case was that the amount involved was about £30,000.

'False claims from the public purse increased his turnover and profit,' he said. 'The NHS has a right to expect fair claims.'

Marshall had written to the Council and said he had had a 'non-existent system' for processing claims alongside an overwhelming workload.

He added: 'I approached it in a very naive and cavalier fashion. I fully admit I exaggerated some claims which is difficult to explain. It was a stupid and irresponsible action.'

Now, however, he has a proper system in place and has processed 15,000 forms without complaint.

Announcing the committee's decision Wilcox said: 'We have noted your evidence that the activities complained of took place over four years ago and that there have been no complaints since then. We have also given credit for the admissions you have made, the references affirming your good character, the services you are providing to remote rural communities and to the fact that there has been no suggestion that your clinical practice has been less than satisfactory.

'Against that, you deliberately and systematically diverted a large amount of NHS funds over a considerable period of time while you were in a position of trust. We cannot condone such misuse of public funds.'