Trial begins of Birmingham dentist
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- Published: Tuesday, 10 July 2012 09:36
- Written by News Editor
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A Birmingham dentist conned the NHS out of £1.4 million by making thousands of false claims for treating patients, including dozens for people who were dead, a jury has heard. Dr Joyce Trail, who is standing trial alongside her sister and daughter, is alleged to have used the proceeds of the scam to fund a globe-trotting and free-spending lifestyle. They deny the charges. The trial is expected to last about 5 weeks. |
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Dr Trail, 50, her daughter Nyri Sterling, 33, and sister Fiona Trail, 46, all deny conspiring to defraud the NHS between April 2006 and March 2009. Opening the case, prosecutor Miranda Moore QC alleged the fraud at Dr Trail's practice in Handsworth involved more than 7,000 claims backed up by false paperwork.
She told Birmingham Crown Court: "Dr Trail claimed and was paid a great deal for treatment she had not performed - not just a few claims, not just a few clerical errors but something in the order of £1.4 million of false claims. "The others both worked in the administration side of the practice and they assisted her in running this substantial fraud.” False lab dockets and invoices relating to dentures allegedly being supplied to residents in care homes are said to have been used to perpetrate the fraud.
Dr Trail, of Park Drive, Little Aston, Sutton Coldfield, Fiona Trail, of Belle Vale, Halesowen, West Midlands, and Sterling, of Ashwood Close, Oldbury, face one count of conspiracy to defraud. Dr Trail and her sister also deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice in April 2009 as NHS investigators gathered evidence.
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