NHS admin worker who ordered £160,000 of printer cartridges no-one needed and sold them on eBay is locked up
- Madeleine Webster, 47, from Stoneycroft, Liverpool, ordered £160,000 of printer cartridges online using public money
- She and husband Stephen, 46, sold them on eBay - making £90k profit
- Administrator jailed for 23 months at Liverpool Crown Court today
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Madeleine Webster and her husband Stephen (pictured outside Liverpool Crown Court at an earlier hearing) admitted buying £160,000 worth of printer cartridges before selling them on eBay
A NHS administrator who bought £160,000 of printer cartridges with public money before selling them on eBay was jailed today.
Madeleine Webster, 47, from Stoneycroft, Liverpool, spent years defrauding her own department by ordering printer cartridges and selling them online.
The £160,000 she and her husband Stephen, 46, took from the NHS would have funded six full-time nursing posts, a court heard.
The couple made around a £90,000 profit from the sales - using the money to fund holidays and buy luxurious items.
Webster was sentenced to 26 months in jail and her husband 13 months at Liverpool Crown Court.
The court heard how Webster, who was based in Wavertree had worked for the NHS For 22 years.
Steve McNally, prosecuting, told the court how her plot was uncovered 'quite by chance' when she sent an email to friend and colleague Debbie Brown which linked to her eBay account.
Her account contained a lot of references to printer ink cartridges being sold and positive feedback from buyers.
Mr McNally, said: 'Having seen those references Ms Brown became concerned because she could recall several occasions when there had been a lot of ink cartridges at their office which had either not been required or had been placed for use in printers they did not even have.'
Webster's boss Bernadine Lynam also recalled occasions she had been working late and saw Madeleine Webster and her husband Stephen, 46, removing items from the office via the fire door.
Mr McNally, said: 'When asked about what was happening at the time she'd given accounts about correcting mistaken deliveries and the like herself, to minimise inconvenience to others.
'Mrs Lynham had taken that to be commendable and beyond the call of duty. With hindsight those incidents take on a very different presentation.'
An investigation was launched. It was found that before Webster took over ordering ink cartridges the department spent about £2,500 a year.
After it became her responsibility, the bill rocketed to £10,854 in 2008 to 2009, then to more than £27,000, £45,000 and finally £60,000 in the following years.
Mr McNally said the total cost of the cartridges ordered came to £168,420 - although some of that figure would have been spent on legitimate use.
He said the loss to the NHS amounted to between £155,000 and £160,000 - roughly six times her salary.
In terms of profit generated through eBay and cash payments, she made a total of £90,318.
Webster used the money to pay for foreign holidays including trips via Eurotunnel and P&O cruises, as well as being spent on shopping channels, eating out, bingo and bookmakers.
When arrested she tried to talk her way out of it, saying that she had a contact in Germany who built up a stockpile of printers which she then sold on but she had lost contact with her.
Mrs Webster was jailed for 23 months while her husband for 13 months today. The court heard how the money they spent on the cartridges could have paid for six full-time nursing posts
She also suggested that problems with the NHS orders were down to the mistakes of receptionists or computer errors, and others may have had access to her accounts, which were all lies.
Webster later pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and her husband, who admitted taking nearly £100,000 of pounds worth of cartridges to a customer in Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property.
Michael Lavery, defending Webster, said it was a sad but inevitable given her dishonest behaviour.
He added: 'She finds it difficult to come to terms with the amount of money that's been spoken of in this case. Her lifestyle hasn't been changed as a result of this offending behaviour.'
Adam Brown, defending Stephen Webster, said he had lost his career as an account manager, was 'ashamed and remorseful' and had only got involved to 'placate his wife and keep their marriage alive'.
He added: 'The family may never recover from this offending.'
Judge Graham Morrow sentenced Webster to 26 months in jail and Stephen Webster to 13 months.
He said: 'You and your wife have fallen from a great height. Greed must have been the driving force for your offending. Your combined yearly income would have been of a level many many people could only dream of and yet they, unlike you, do not commit the type of crimes which you did.'
He added: 'You abused your position of trust within the NHS. You did so repeatedly and over a long period of time.
'You knew from your time within the NHS that at the time you were committing offences the service was under financial pressure. I cannot say any particular front line health service was adversely affected by your actions but it will have put pressure on an already hard pressed service.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570509/NHS-admin-worker-ordered-160-000-printer-cartridges-no-one-needed-sold-eBay-locked-up.html#ixzz2ujXbsvcH
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