Professor jailed for fraud scheme

Rolfe and Benmakroha found guilty of fraud

A university professor and his personal assistant have been jailed for attempting to defraud a health authority and a university out of thousands of pounds intended for research projects.

Internationally acclaimed medical professor Peter Rolfe, 55, and Carol Benmakroha, 39, were convicted earlier this year of setting up a "misleading" bank account to facilitate the fraud.

At Stafford Crown Court, Judge John Warner said the pair had behaved in a "thoroughly dishonest way" over a lengthy period and had abused trust.

Rolfe, of Oakley, near Market Drayton, Shropshire, was sentenced to 10 months and ordered to pay £63,626.97 in compensation.

You were not, in my judgement, naive in matters of money and knew exactly what you were doing.

Judge John Warner

Benmakroha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was given an eight-month sentence and told to pay £26,000 compensation.

The money will be divided equally between the North Staffordshire Hospital NHS Trust and Keele University.

Rolfe was a former director of the hospital's biomedical engineering department, which has responsibility for many research projects and also maintains hi-tech equipment used for patient care.

Suspended and sacked

The fraud charges followed an 18-month police investigation into financial irregularities at both institutions.

Hospital auditors called in the police in the summer of 1997 and Rolfe and Benmakroha were suspended. Later they were sacked by the trust running the hospital in Hartshill, Staffordshire.

During sentencing at Stafford Crown Court, Judge John Warner said he had no doubt that Rolfe had been the "prime mover" behind the fraud.

Keele University will receive compensation

"You were not, in my judgement, naive in matters of money and knew exactly what you were doing.

"Even when you were confronted by obvious material or inconsistencies, you simply couldn't understand how anyone could doubt or question what you were saying.

"You got used to having your own way in such things. The jury saw through you."

Judge Warner said Benmakroha, a mother-of-one, was Rolfe's "willing and knowing assistant".

Cash withdrawals

He added that she had taken advantage of the money to make withdrawals from cash machines.

Addressing both accused, he went on: "You set up and used an account which was outside the system.

"It avoided all the safeguards in place to protect charity and hospital money.

"It enabled you to spend money and charge items as you like without any outside checks."