NHS doctor and husband made £8,000 selling stolen Covid PPE

Telegraph

18-07-2025

A doctor and her husband who made almost £8,000 out of 'sheer greed' selling personal protective equipment (PPE) stolen from the NHS during the early months of the pandemic have been jailed for 10 months each.
Attiya and Omer Sheikh admitted resetting a quantity of PPE which was the property of NHS Scotland between May 30 and Oct 7 2020 when they appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court in May. Reset is the offence of handling stolen goods.
It had been 'dishonestly appropriated' by persons unknown to the prosecutor, court documents stated.
The couple were jailed when they returned to the court for sentencing on Friday, with the term reduced from 12 months because of their early guilty pleas.
Sentencing the pair, Sheriff Sukhwinder Gill said they both knew they were in possession of PPE stolen from the NHS.
'Egregious breach of trust'
She said: 'The time period was significant. This was a time when the world was in a heightened state of fear and anxiety at the start of the pandemic. The NHS was facing an unprecedented crisis. There was an extreme shortage of PPE.
'As a doctor, you clearly knew that PPE was essential for your colleagues. You chose to sell PPE which you knew was stolen for financial gain. It is hard to imagine a more egregious breach of trust. You did this together out of sheer greed.'
Prosecutors said that in July 2020, NHS counter fraud services began an investigation into the potential theft and resale of PPE, including medical gloves and masks, on eBay.
The investigation found four separate eBay accounts connected to the accused. The couple made £7,827 selling PPE on the site, the court heard.
Police and NHS counter fraud service specialists searched the couple's home in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire, in October 2020 and found 121 boxes of PPE in the attic.
At the time, Attiya Sheikh, 46, was a doctor at University Hospital Hairmyres in East Kilbride, but she has not worked for NHS Lanarkshire since 2020.
John Scullion KC, representing the doctor, said the offence had a 'very significant' impact on the mother of three, both professionally and personally, and she was now unemployed.
'She accepts full responsibility for her actions and acknowledges the significant breach of trust the offence represents, and the potential impact of her actions both on her professional colleagues and on society more generally, and expresses remorse which appears to be both genuine and profound,' he said.
'She has dedicated her adult life to the study of medicine ... in order that she could make a positive contribution to society.
'Instead, because of her actions, she has now lived for almost five years with the shame of having betrayed the values which have otherwise guided her life. She bitterly regrets her actions.'
'He recognises his mistake'
Advocate Kevin Henry, representing Mr Sheikh, 48, said: 'He recognises that it was a big, big mistake on his part and understands the impact this offence will have had on front-line NHS workers at a time when PPE was at a premium.'
Gordon Young, head of NHS Scotland counter fraud services, said: 'This individual was aware that this personal protective equipment had been unlawfully appropriated and as a clinician she would have understood the importance of PPE for NHS Scotland staff during the Covid pandemic.
'Our investigation included locating 121 boxes of gloves intended to protect our front-line staff.'