Thursday 10 November 2022 10:35 AM NHS radiologist, 39, who forged timesheets over eight months avoids being ... trends now
An NHS doctor who falsified timesheets to earn extra money has kept his job after he apologised and admitted he did it out of an 'entitled sense of arrogance'.
Vascular radiologist Luke Morgan-Rowe, 39, submitted false claims for overtime he did not work over an eight month period - after racking up 'severe debt' from medical school.
Although he worked back the hours he claimed and advancing towards an average salary of £80,000-£120,000 for his profession, the public-school educated doctor was fired when NHS managers uncovered the scam and was subsequently arrested and charged with fraud.
He faced a Crown Court judge however prosecutors were unable to offer any evidence against him. The General Medical Council then began a disciplinary investigation into his conduct.
At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, Morgan-Rowe, who was educated at the £34,920-a-year Reeds School in Cobham, Surrey, before graduating in medicine at the University of London, admitted dishonesty.
Vascular radiologist Luke Morgan-Rowe, 39, submitted false claims for overtime he did not work over an eight month period - after racking up 'severe debt' from medical school
He confessed he had been 'arrogant' at the time of the scam and felt 'a sense of entitlement' to claim extra cash but said he was a 'different and better person now.'
The medic from Bayford, Hertfordshire, was suspended from practicing for six months after being found guilty of professional misconduct and is expected to return to work following a review next year.
A disciplinary panel decided not to strike Morgan-Rowe off the medical register after reading letters of support from Lister Hospital in Stevenage, where he has been working in recent years.
It emerged the money claimed - the full amount of which was not disclosed - came from a Government grant for a 2012 research project whilst working as a research fellow in the complex aorta treatment team at three hospitals under the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. The typical NHS Consultant Radiologist salary is £100,040 per year.
Morgan-Rowe filed the faked timesheets between June 2012 and February 2013, using a photocopied signature on the documents to make it appear the claims had been authorised by a senior colleague, the hearing was told.
Initial concerns were raised within the Trust in February 2013 and the matter escalated to the NHS Counter Fraud team.
Morgan-Rowe was then subsequently arrested and charged with criminal offences of fraud.
The matters went to the Crown Court for trial when the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence and in 2016 a not guilty verdict was recorded.
In a statement to the hearing, Dr Morgan-Rowe said: 'I accept that my conduct at the time was dishonest.
'I claimed for hours that I did not work based on a sense of entitlement and arrogance.
'I had claimed the money in advance for the hours I knew I would eventually work. I knew this was not the normal way to receive payment for work, but it had assisted
