NHS kept using fraud firm for three years

Corruption scandal company worked for health board long after prosecutors swooped

- BY SALLY HIND

THE firm at the centre of a £6million NHS corruption scandal was still carrying out work for one health board three years after it was first charged.

Four men were jailed for a total of 29 years in June following a major investigation into the award of lucrative NHS contracts to Ayrshire-based telecommunications firm Oricom.

The probe was first revealed by the Daily Record after an NHS counter-fraud team swooped on Oricom's offices in 2015.

Directors Adam Sharoudi, 41, and Gavin Brown, 48, secured major deals during a “corrupt relationship” with NHS telecoms bosses Alan Hush, 68, and Gavin Cox, 60.

Now an investigation into the contracts has revealed NHS Lothian, whose former telecoms manager Hush was jailed for eight years, carried on using the services of the firm up until March last year - paying out almost £100,000 after prosecutors were passed a dossier of evidence by fraud investigators.

Craig Marriott, director of finance at NHS Lothian, said: “NHS Lothian did not enter into any new regulated contracts with Oricom Ltd pending the prosecution outcome.