A fraudulent dentist has been ordered to pay £104,232.89 in compensation to the NHS within six months or face a second two year jail sentence.
Following an investigation by NHS Protect, Young Jun Suh received a two year jail sentence in January last year for inventing patients in order to claim back £109,000 for their ‘treatment’ from the NHS. He was removed from the General Dental Council (GDC)’s register on 15 December 2011.
Young Jun Suh, 43, of Montaigne Close, Belgravia, London, pleaded guilty to fraud and theft totaling £109,000. He had submitted false claims to NHS Dental Services and deceived NHS patients into being treated and charged privately.
Almost half of the payment claims Suh submitted raised doubts with NHS Protect.
The organisation claims that although most of the signatures on patient forms appeared to be from real patients, many did not match the name on the record card.
Some forms had been altered using correcting fluid, disguising details such as name and date of birth. On one card, the genuine surname ‘Raptopoulous’ had been changed to ‘Laptopooloo’.
Suh was arrested in May 2007, when 15,000 patient record cards were seized in searches of his home and practice. Further discrepancies were discovered when a number of his patients were examined by NHS Protect’s expert dentist in October 2008.
Mick Hayes, anti-fraud lead at NHS Protect, said: “We are pleased that the court has directed he must give back virtually all of this public money or face prison again.
“We will always seek to recover NHS funds lost through fraud. NHS Protect acts on any suspicions of fraud reported to us, wherever appropriate launching an investigation and pressing for prosecution.”
