Corrupt lawyer cheated hospitals

George Brangam swindled more than £270,000 from health bodies

A solicitor defrauded the health service of more than £270,000 over eight years, the Audit Office has said.

Most of the late George Brangam's fraud involved medical negligence cases, the government watchdog found.

He would invoice health bodies for more money than the case had actually been settled for, then keep the extra cash, ranging from £1,250 up to £75,000.

Auditors found the fraud could have been detected earlier if existing financial controls had been used.

A senior partner in legal firm Brangam, Bagnall and Co, George Brangam died last August.

At the time of his death, he was under investigation by the PSNI Fraud Squad for his work on NHS compensation proceedings.

There is no suggestion that anyone else in the firm knew anything about his activities.

Irregularities

In July 2006, the Causeway HSS Trust informed the Department of Health of potential irregularities.

Within a period of less than five weeks, his practice was shut down by the Law Society.

Money that could have been spent on front-line activity in the health service was siphoned out of the system NI Audit Office

Auditor General John Dowdall said the lawyer systematically defrauded six of the 11 health bodies he provided legal services to on a known 28 occasions over an eight-year period.

"There is a possibility that the extent of fraud committed by George Brangam was higher than determined by available evidence," he said.

According to the report, management in some health bodies were "not sufficiently alert to the risk from fraud".

"Money that could have been spent on front-line activity in the health service was siphoned out of the system," it said.

'Key lessons'

The report said it was not unreasonable to expect services to be rendered with integrity and honesty by professionals.

But it added: "One of the key lessons of this case is that it is not appropriate or sufficient to rely on this.

"It is management's responsibility to exercise proper care and attention in the area of legal and litigation services by ensuring adequate controls are in place and that they are complied with."

Patricia McKeown of health union Unison said she hoped measures would be put into place to prevent such fraud ever happening again.

"I want to see this whole process of how the government spends its money on buying in goods and services open and transparent. I think the public needs to know and be confident that it's all being protected from here on in."

The Law Society said it "expects professional standards of its members at all times, including that they act with integrity and honesty".

It added: "The society has also made recommendations for improvement of public sector litigation management which we note the Audit Office has accepted."