Scheming NHS chiefs and telecoms bosses learn fate over £6m corruption plot

Scottish Sun

5 days ago

Disgraced bosses Alan Hush, 68, and Gavin Cox, 60, were today sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow
BANGED UP Scheming NHS chiefs and telecoms bosses learn fate over £6m corruption plot
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TWO scheming NHS chiefs and two telecoms bosses nailed over a £6m corruption and bribery probe at health boards across Scotland have been jailed for a total of 29 years.
Disgraced bosses Alan Hush, 68, and Gavin Cox, 60, were today sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow alongside directors Adam Sharoudi, 41, and Gavin Brown, 48.
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Disgraced NHS chief Alan Hush learned his fate at the High Court in Glasgow.
Credit: Andrew Barr
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Former NHS boss Gavin Cox was found guilty after trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Credit: Andrew Barr
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Disgraced Oricom directors Adam Sharoudi, left, and Gavin Brown.
Credit: Andrew Barr
They learned their fate after earlier having been found guilty by a jury of conspiring in the lucrative plot.
Hush was jailed for eight years after being found guilty of nine charges.
Cox was locked up for six years for the two charges he was convicted of.
Sharoudi was also handed an eight year term having been convicted of seven charges.
Brown was jailed for seven years for a total of six charges.
Lord Arthurson said: 'Such is the corrosive effect of corruption upon commercial and public life, individuals such as yourselves should expect to be dealt with robustly by the courts.
'The public should expect their fellow citizens should not seek to subvert public officials in their duties.
'Such officials should note that, succumbing to bribery, will result in the handing down of significant terms.
'The reach and character of the corruption and, in particular, the corrupt relationship engaged by all of you was on a grand scale.'
We told how Oricom directors Brown and Sharoudi bribed corrupt NHS bosses Hush and Cox with cash, lavish trips and holidays to fix up deals between 2010 and 2017.
The cheating directors bribed their way to contracts after setting up the business from "a garden shed" in Irvine, Ayrshire.
During a lengthy trial, jurors heard Hush, a former telecoms boss at NHS Lothian and NHS Scotland video conferencing manager, referred to the company as the 'Bank of Oricom'.
It supplied and maintained telecoms and video conferencing gear.
Hush was given train tickets, hotel stays in London, a laptop worth almost £2,000, an iPad plus meals and tickets to see Paul Simon, Rufus Wainwright and Patti Smith.
Cox was head of IT and infrastructure at NHS Lanarkshire when he enjoyed hospitality at the Scottish Grand National, a night at Troon's Lochgreen House Hotel and a slap-up meal at Elliots in Prestwick.
He also got thousands of pounds of Barrhead Travel holiday vouchers and took lavish trips to New York and Lanzarote.
Oricom boss Brown was a guest at his surprise 50th birthday party.
The NHS duo pushed through numerous deals, with one contract worth £3.1million.
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In return, Hush, of Edinburgh, got £18,231 of cash bungs and gifts while Cox, of Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, pocketed more than £70,000.
Prosecutor David Nicolson KC said Hush 'failed to instigate a proper tendering process' for work Oricom secured.
He added: 'Alan Hush played by the Alan Hush rules. Alan Hush . . . did what he liked.'
The charges, including bribery, corruption, fraud, theft and others under the Proceeds of Crime Act, spanned from 2010 to 2017.
One stated Sharoudi and Brown did 'acquire, use and possess' a total of £5,719,244 of 'criminal property' paid by NHS Lothian, NHS Grampian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as well as NHS Ayrshire and Arran.
Hush was convicted of nine charges, Cox of two, Sharoudi, from Motherwell, seven, and Brown, of Prestwick, was nailed for six.
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Alan Hush pocketed tickets to see Paul Simon, above, and other live acts.
Credit: Getty
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Alan Hush had train trips paid for by corrupt Oricom bosses.
Credit: Alamy
Jurors reached their verdicts after eight days of deliberation.
Remanding the four in custody in April, judge Lord Arthurson said: 'You collectively engaged, to varying degrees, in a deeply cynical, highly corrupt, coldly calculated and criminal betrayal of the welfare state and, ultimately, the taxpayer.
'The courts regard corruption as a cancer in public and commercial life.'
Gordon Young, of NHS Counter Fraud Services, said at the time: 'We will continue to do all we can to prevent fraud to protect vital NHS Scotland services so funding goes where it's needed — to patient care.'
Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Specialist Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: 'This is an outstanding result for justice in Scotland.
'As prosecutors, we have shown an unwavering commitment to pursuing and investigating this matter. This was a betrayal of public trust.
'These four men colluded to create a sophisticated criminal scheme. The public will rightly be shocked by the scale of their criminality.
'The scale of this offending against our public health service is particularly egregious.
'The systematic abuse of position by public officials, who accepted inappropriate benefits including cash, holidays and entertainment in exchange for contract advantages, strikes at the heart of public trust.
'It serves as a reminder that procurement processes exist to ensure fair competition and value for public money. When these processes are corrupted, all of society bears the cost."