A 28 year old male nurse from Luton who swindled over £70,000 from the NHS to finance his gambling habit is now behind bars.

Hoong Chen-Fatt, 28, from Luton, submitted timesheets and claimed for shifts he had not worked at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital in 2006.
 
Luton Crown Court was told Chen-Fatt, who had left the hospital 17 months earlier, spent the money in casinos and that he was a gambling addict.
 
Chen-Fatt, admitted four counts of concealing criminal property, and was sentenced to a 27-month prison term.
 
Jeremy Taylor, prosecuting, said Chen-Fatt had left his part-time post at the Luton and Dunstable to take a full-time job at the Royal Free Hospital in London in June 2005.
 
In November 2006, a timesheet in his name was found to have been submitted at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.
 
Mr. Taylor said that started "alarm bells ringing" and following an NHS inquiry, police were called in to investigate.

Chen-Fatt had signed some 1,100 declarations that the records were true and accurate.
 
But the court heard handwriting experts who examined the timesheets, said he had forged the signature of a manager each time, and had deceived Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust out of £69,296.
 
The court was told that Chen-Fatt had visited a casino on numerous occasions between 2002 and 2006.
He was found gambling with more than £38,500 and had lost more than £12,000.

The Luton and Dunstable hospital consistently performs to high standards and for the last seven years has remained in financial balance. It employs 3,400 staff, and has an annual spend (in 2005/06) of £140 million.

Since Chen-Fatt’s fraudulent actions were detected managers at the hospital have now imposed stricter procedures with regards to the submission of time sheets.

Jailing Chen-Fatt for 27 months Judge John Bevan QC said "You were stealing hand over fist from a hospital trust."