Health manager sold human bones

A hospital manager accused of stealing human bones and selling them to clinics has been jailed for 10 months after he admitted obtaining money by deception.

Christopher Ibbotson, 48, from Gristhorpe, North Yorkshire, pleaded guilty on Wednesday after originally denying the charges.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Ibbotson managed a "bone bank" at Sheffield's Northern General Hospital.

The jury was told he sold bones to two private clinics and pocketed £12,000.

Bone grafts

Ibbotson had denied 10 counts of theft, but his trial was halted after he indicated he wanted to plead guilty to a lesser charge.

He was found not guilty of the thefts on the directions of the judge but admitted 10 charges of obtaining money by deception and also asked for another 34 counts to be taken into consideration.

The bones had been donated to the "bone bank" for use in grafts and other operations.

This was a cynical and deeply dishonest breach of trust stretching over nearly five years Judge Roger Keen

Judge Roger Keen said: "The property was there, donated by the living and the dead, for the good of the public and you decided to utilise it for your own profit.

"Because of the nature of that in which you were involved, the impact on the public's confidence in bone donation can't be underestimated."

The judge also ordered Ibbotson to pay back £12,443 to the hospital trust and pay £4,500 prosecution costs.

He continued: "This was a cynical and deeply dishonest breach of trust stretching over nearly five years."

Financial problems

The ten theft counts Ibbotson faced related to pieces of leg bone which he sold to Thornbury Hospital and Claremont Hospital, in Sheffield.

Richard Buttery, defending, said father-of-three Ibbotson had suffered financial problems following a divorce from his wife who subsequently killed herself.

He had worked at the Northern General Hospital since the early 1980s and received praise for his work in the bone bank during his time there.

Following the hearing a spokesman for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "It is unfair the actions of one individual should affect an NHS service which is there for the benefit of the community and we have clear duty to take action when this happens."

Dermid McCausland, executive director at the NHS Counter Fraud Service, said: "Ibbotson was consumed by greed.

"He abused the trust given to him by the hospital and lined his own pockets with money meant for the hospital budget.

"Although NHS patients were not directly affected by the theft, his actions meant that this money was not reaching the frontline and patient care."