21-05-2025
Doctor and husband pocketed almost £8k selling stolen NHS PPE on Ebay during lockdown
Doctor and husband pocketed almost £8k selling stolen NHS PPE on Ebay during lockdown
Attiya and Omer Sheikh admitted they sold the stolen PPE between May 30, 2020 and October 7, 2020.
Attiya Sheikh works as a doctor at Hairmyres Hospital
(Image: Staff )
A doctor and her husband could be facing jail after selling stolen hospital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on Ebay during the first covid lockdown generating thousands of pounds in less than five months.
Crooks Attiya Sheikh and husband Omer Sheikh generated almost £8k from selling PPE that they knew had been pinched from the NHS, on four Ebay accounts between May and October 2020.
Attiya Sheikh works as a doctor at Hairmyres Hospital
(Image: Staff )
Omer Sheikh sold the items on Ebay with his wife
(Image: Staff )
Paisley Sheriff Court heard 45-year-old Attiya Sheikh works as a doctor at East Kilbride's Hairmyres Hospital while her 48-year-old husband works front-of-house at a family restaurant.
Councillor Eddie Devine – who called for better PPE provision for care home staff and social care workers at the start of the pandemic – has blasted the Sheikh's actions as 'despicable'.
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Councillor Eddie Devine has slammed the Sheikh's as "despicable"
(Image: Andrew Neil )
The representative for Paisley Southeast said: 'For a doctor to sell stolen PPE from a hospital for their own financial gain is despicable.
'People trust their doctors, we give them our respect, and while people were dying in hospitals and Renfrewshire care homes from covid, staff doing their best to do their jobs with what they had, she and her husband are financially benefitting from this.
'That's the lowest of the low. That makes me shake my head hearing this. Utterly despicable. It would be bad enough for any person to do this, but a doctor and her husband, it beggars belief.
'I hope that when they are sentenced next month they are dealt with appropriately for what they've done and the devastating consequences their actions would've had.'
The town's court heard cops raided the Sheikh family home in Thornliebank in October 2020 but Mrs Sheikh wasn't home at the time. During the search, 121 boxes of PPE, belonging to the NHS, were found in the couple's attic.
The procurator fiscal depute told the court: 'Officers searched the attic and found 121 boxes of blue medical gloves, facemasks and electronic equipment that included a silver iPhone.
'It was noted from the officers the gloves were from a supplier named Fannin Ltd. They are a care essential brand company that sold a brand of gloves to the NHS.
'Fannin UK Ltd make medical products and PPE. Because of what was found in the property, Mrs Sheikh, who wasn't at home at the time of the search was contacted.
'At this point she was eager to speak about what had been found and she was advised by an officer it wasn't appropriate to speak at that time and she would be contacted at a later date to do so. Later that day, Mrs Sheikh contacted the officer and the call was put on speaker.
'She started to discuss gloves that were found and before proceeding she was cautioned and proceeded to state that she had obtained the gloves from an individual from within Hairmyres Hospital and she had seen his NHS identification badge and that she had a suspicion she knew where the stock of gloves came from.'
The court heard Doctor Sheikh was asked by officers for the name of the NHS worker she claimed had given her the gloves.
The fiscal depute added: 'She provided the name Andrew Ferguson. Enquiries carried out concluded there was no Andrew Ferguson found to work at the hospital.
'Further investigations were carried out by officers and uncovered through Ebay accounts that during May 30 to October 7, 2020, that both accused had been selling PPE on Ebay to various individuals. The value generated from this was £7,857.'
Prior to the case calling for trial at Paisley Sheriff Court, both Attiya Sheikh and Omer Sheikh pleaded guilty to the reset of PPE that belonged to the NHS that had been 'dishonestly appropriated' by persons unknown to the prosecutor.
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Sheriff Sukhwinder Gill stated: 'Given the nature of the charge, I'll call for reports.'
Sentence was adjourned until next month for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment.
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