Locum pleads guilty to defrauding multiple

A 47-year-old Leicestershire locum optometrist has been given a suspended jail sentence for duping Boots Opticians out of £13,500 by submitting false claim forms for eye tests.

Jayant Dattani pleaded guilty last week at Leicester Crown Court to five counts of theft of money from Boots and an attempted theft between April and December 2006. He also asked for 22 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Dattani, of Holme Drive, Oadby, Leicestershire, was given an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, with supervision. He was also ordered to do 160 hours of unpaid work.

The court heard how Dattani - a married father of two - was given work at Boots, through an agency, to perform eye tests on a part-time basis. Payments were made when claim forms were submitted, and these had to be countersigned by the store's manager. Dattani admitted stealing a batch of claim forms from Boots Fosse Park store. He then photocopied or scanned a store manager's signature onto the claim forms.