A Nigerian doctor, Richard Akinrolabu, is to spend the next three years in jail in the United Kingdom after admitting to defrauding the National Health Service (NHS) of more than £268,000 (about N509,556,440).
Akinrolabu, 61, of Orpington, Kent, had on September 3, 2025, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation at the Woolwich Crown Court.
ON November 4, he returned to the same court to get his sentence.
According to the National Health Service Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA), Richard Akinrolabu’s problem arose from trying to game the system to make more money for himself.
The doctor qualified in Nigeria in 2003 and secured employment as a trust grade specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology with the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) in London, which forms part of King’s College Hospitals (KCH) NHS Foundation Trust.
The position offered him was a trust grade specialist registrar, a type of resident doctor, formerly known as a junior doctor.
Akinrolabu told his employers he was not able to handle additional shifts, but between October 2018 and December 2021, he worked on-call and night shifts at three additional trusts.
Again, when he took sick leave or when he was on reduced duties from King’s College Hospital, the doctor hopped to another hospital to work.
His employers paid his full salary and still had to hire locums to cover the shifts that Akinrolabu could not handle for them..
Matters came to a head in November 2021, when KCH was informed that Richard Akinrolabu had been working night shifts at Basildon Hospital. Upon investigations by the trust’s local counter fraud team, it was confirmed that he had worked several on-call shifts there.
More investigation by the trust and NHSCFA investigators yielded witness evidence confirming that the doctor had worked at three other hospitals, namely, Princess Alexandra Hospital, East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust and Mid-South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. He did that while on reduced duties at his regular place of employment.
His employers stated with evidence that he had not obtained any permission to carry out secondary employment.
Tendered timesheet and payroll exhibits from the other three trusts showed that the majority of shifts that he had worked were at night and on-call, despite claiming to be unfit to do either.
He was formally confronted in June 2022 by the local counter-fraud team. The doctor declined to speak, saying he had no comment to make.
Upon further inquiry by the NHSCFA, Akinrolabu was charged with four counts of Fraud by False Representation.
Delivering his judgement, Judge David Miller denounced Akinrolabu for lying to occupational health, his colleagues and his employer.
Head of Operations at the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, Ben Harrison, said it was a clear case of abuse of trust by an NHS professional who knowingly breached the conditions of his employment for personal gain.
He declared that Akinrolabu defrauded the NHS OF substantial funds that should have supported patient care.
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