Dentist that defrauded NHS charged £360,000
A dentist charged with mass fraud involving treatments over the course of 6 years, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, has been convicted and imprisoned. Mark Walewski has now been ordered to pay £360,000 in compensation after the crime hearing was brought to Guildford Crown Court.
Previously the manager of the New Dental Surgery in Surrey, Walewski was jailed for three years in February 2016 after admitting to four counts of fraud. The crime committed involved charging the NHS for treatment that had not been carried out, or that had already been charged to patients, which made the dentist more than £222,000 along the way.
The court was told that Walewski had made a number of false claims between 2006 and 2012, during which he boasted an income of £150,000 and an NHS contract worth £340,000. In the end he was faced with 21 charges, causing him to admit to two counts of obtaining money transferred by deception, as well as two counts of committing fraud by abusing his position.
Of the estimated 6,600 fraudulent claims made by Walewski, one of the most dubious was put in for the dental examination of a baby that was 17 days old – much too young to have grown any teeth.
As a result, the New Dental Surgery has now been taken over and is run by a completely different dental practice.
