Taxi Driver Online

Kathleen Duncan admits £38,000 taxi fraud in Fife

Kathleen Duncan Duncan also forged signatures of NHS staff to confirm hospital attendance

A mother has admitted defrauding more than £38,000 from the NHS by claiming travel expenses for fake taxi journeys.

Kathleen Duncan, 44, submitted receipts for up to £160 each, with forged drivers' signatures, to NHS Fife for 13 months.

She claimed they were for her terminally ill children to travel from their Dunfermline home to hospital.

Duncan, pleaded guilty on indictment to defrauding NHS Fife of £38,019 between 1 August 2010 and 29 August 2011.

The 44-year-old, who now lives in South Queensferry, had originally been charged with defrauding the health board of £60,019 by fraud but the Crown accepted a plea to a reduced charge.

She also forged the signatures of NHS staff needed to confirm her attendance at hospital, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard.

Deferred sentence

Two of her three children have the rare genetic condition Hurler's Syndrome.

The syndrome leaves sufferers physically and mentally disabled, with most living an average of 11 years.

The court heard the children both required regular hospital treatment, both as inpatients and out patients.

Fiscal depute Dev Kapadia said: "In July 2010 one of the children received a bone marrow transplant in Manchester.

"Up until this time the children had regularly attended at Victoria and Forth Park hospitals.

"Following the bone marrow transplant the children's attendance at these hospitals was less frequent."

Records showed that between 1 August 2010 and 29 August 2011 the children had 24 outpatient appointments between them and five separate inpatient stays.

Mr Kapadia said: "Between 12 May 2011 and August 13 2011 neither child attended either Victoria or Forth Park Hospital, yet a claim was made for a taxi journey for every single day during this period."

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and released Duncan on bail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e ... e-26032225

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

How on earth did she get away with that for so long?

Defo muppets in the accounts department.

Or relations.

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IDFIMH

Well named..folk like her make you want to Hurl...

With the amount of journeys carried out to these places every day I am not surprised that this sort of thing can go on un noticed for so long. Staff just won't have the time to check every invoice. It will require a separate team to sift through all the claims and look for patterns and then act upon the information. I would think that a computer program could be used to highlight journeys that are happening on a frequent basis so that these could be looked at first.

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Grandad,

Kathleen Duncan sentenced for £38,000 NHS taxi fraud in Fife

A mother who admitted defrauding NHS Fife of more than £38,000 by claiming for fake taxi journeys has been given a two-year community payback order.

Kathleen Duncan, 44, who now lives in South Queensferry, submitted forged receipts for up to £160 each over a period of 13 months.

She had earlier pleaded guilty to defrauding NHS Fife of £38,019 between 1 August 2010 and 29 August 2011.

At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Duncan was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Sheriff Maxwell Hendry said: "This was a carefully thought out, planned and executed fraud carried out repeatedly in a deliberate attempt to defraud the NHS.

"The starting point here would be custody, but I have to weigh up all the factors.

"I'm just persuaded that the interests of justice don't require me to send you to prison.

"While I'm not asked to use your children's circumstances to justify that I'm obliged to take into account what the circumstances would be if you were serving years in custody."

She claimed the expenses were for her terminally ill children to travel from their then home in Dunfermline to hospital.

The court heard that Duncan forged drivers' signatures and the signatures of NHS staff, which were needed to confirm her attendance at hospital.

Two of her three children have the rare genetic condition Hurler's Syndrome.

The court heard the children both required regular hospital treatment, both as inpatients and outpatients.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-e ... e-26481226

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Why wasn't the ambulance service responsible for transport?

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Because these were fraudulent claims for journeys that did not take place.

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Grandad,

Look at it this way- There was a "Mark" in life on NHS Fife! that said fraud will happen to take place at such and such a time, at such and such a place ........she is only the fall girl/bit part player that made it happen.........it is all a perverted game

It was refreshing to see that a politician was not involved....sort of a happy story/good news for a change

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.