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.
Nahid Asjad, prosecuting, said that suspicions were aroused when invoice forms were submitted to Boots relating to work Dattani had claimed to have carried out at various branches throughout Leicestershire. The court heard that an investigation into his activities revealed he had not worked on the days he was claiming for.
Defending Dattani, Sally Bamford said that he had since repaid £13,000 of the money. 'He's still working as an optometrist,' she told the court 'but faces professional intervention and may lose his licence to practise.
'He's undertaken good work in the community and still assists at a project that takes groups of children to the coast,' she added.
Judge Charles Wide QC told Dattani: 'Over a period of seven months you systematically defrauded Boots. It was a gross breach of trust.'