PPE crooks jailed for £8k hospital scam

A doctor and her husband were each jailed for 10 months yesterday after selling stolen hospital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on eBay during the first covid lockdown.

- EMYLIE HOWIE

Crooks Attiya Sheikh and husband Omer Sheikh generated almost £8,000 from selling PPE, that they knew had been pinched from the NHS, on four eBay accounts between May and October 2020.

The couple were exposed after NHS Scotland supplier Fannin spotted its products for sale on the auction website.

Detectives found that the couple had been selling the much-needed PPE online for £15 to £20 when “the world was in a heightened state of fear and anxiety” at the start of the pandemic.

The pair were sentenced to 10 months in prison with Sheriff Sukhwinder Gill saying the doctor had committed an “egregious breach of trust” while working at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, and that the offence “merits a custodial sentence”.

Sheriff Gill slammed the couple and told them: “Mrs Sheikh, you are 46, a health professional and at the time were a doctor with the NHS.