A NEWPORT health worker who worked as a taxi driver while on paid sick leave was caught out when his manager spotted him in a taxi rank.

Allen Robert Williams, an NHS support worker for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, was ordered to pay £11,000 in compensation to the NHS and was given a 18 week suspended sentences. He was also ordered to undertake 160 hours of unpaid community work.

Williams, 45, of Jamaica Walk, Coedkernew, pleaded guilty to fraud by failing to disclose information at Newport Magistrates Court on Tuesday, January 19.

It was the result of a fraud investigation led by local counter fraud specialists and supported by the NHS counter fraud service for Wales.

Williams, who earned £19,000 in his healthcare job, first told the health board in 2007 that he had taken up extra work as a self-employed taxi driver.

The health board said they had no objection as long as his secondary employment did not impact on his primary role with the NHS.

But after Williams went on sick leave in July 2014, he carried on working as a taxi driver.

Between November 2014 and March 2015, while on sick leave, he drove his taxi 122 times.

During this period, he had two meetings with his NHS manager, each time telling her that he was not working as a taxi driver.

In one meeting, he asked his manager for permission to work as a taxi driver as he felt doing so would "ease his stress". The manager refused him permission but the same day he drove his taxi for seven hours.

Williams resigned from his NHS post on March 6 last year.

One of the lead investigators, LCFS Jeff Howells, said: “The matter came to light when his manager saw Williams, sat in the driver’s seat of a taxi in the taxi rank outside Newport railway station.

"This was fraud, as he was on paid sick leave from the NHS for work related stress at the time.

"Your average taxpayer or NHS patient would be unhappy with his behaviour and this sentence should deter others from trying to do the same”.

Graham Dainty, operational fraud manager for NHS counter fraud service (Wales) said: "The successful investigation and financial recovery by our colleagues at Aneurin Bevan UHB confirms that any fraud against NHS Wales will not be tolerated and that appropriate criminal, civil and disciplinary sanctions will always be pursued".

Martyn Edwards, head of counter fraud at Aneurin Bevan Health Board, said: "This successful criminal conviction and financial recovery confirms that any fraud against NHS Wales will not be tolerated and that appropriate criminal sanctions will be pursued."