Ambulance boss 'defrauded NHS'

The former boss of West Yorkshire's ambulance service used nearly £250,000 of public money to fund a failing property company, a court has heard.

Trevor Molton, 50, of Pickering, North Yorks, appeared at Manchester Crown Court with his wife Angela, 43.

The couple and former trust finance director John Miners, 43, of West End, Nailsea, deny conspiracy to defraud.

A jury heard the men allegedly bought local authority properties and renovated them using NHS funds.

The court heard Mr Molton, who was the chief executive of the trust at the time, used money from West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Trust (WYMAT) to carry out the renovations before renting them out to Filipino nurses.

The court heard he and Mr Miners planned to bring more than 1,000 nurses into the UK to fund the shortage in the NHS.

They lined their own pockets financially at the expense of West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Trust Euan Duff, prosecuting

Euan Duff, prosecuting, said men set up a company, Accomodation for Yorkshire (A4Y), in 2000 but hid the fact from the board of the trust.

"They lined their own pockets financially at the expense of West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Trust (WYMAT).

"The matter began when Trevor Molton and John Miners saw the opportunity to profit personally by way of the business opportunity which the requirement of housing for nurses represented.

"None of the directors were aware of it at all. The scheme proceeded with the board in total ignorance of what was going on," he said.

He claimed Angela Molton became a board member of A4Y when her husband stood down to disguise his involvement.

A fourth defendant, estate agent Paul Buckley, 35, of Horsforth, Leeds, is accused of conspiring to obtain property for A4Y and profiting from the misuse of NHS money.

The trial continues.