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A man has been sentenced to a minimum of four years and 10 months in prison for defrauding three Sydney hospitals of nearly $3 million dollars.
In sentencing Raheed Alahad Khan in the NSW District Court in Sydney on Friday, Judge Anthony Blackmore said the 37-year-old had provided no information about the whereabouts of the money and there was “no prospect” of its recovery.
Judge Blackmore described the former hospital employee’s actions as “conniving, calculated and extremely profitable for him”.
Khan, who pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money by deception in February this year, made false medical supply and paper orders to three fake companies while working at St Vincent’s and Mater hospitals and the Sydney Southwest Private Hospital in Liverpool.
With the help of fake invoices, the court heard that between 2003 and 2009, Khan carried out a “series of systematic frauds” on the three hospitals, amounting to just under $3 million.
“Payments were made for products that just never existed and therefore were never delivered,” Judge Blackmore said.
Khan had said that he had used the money to fund interstate trips, uniforms and registration expenses for a suburban football club, and had admitted that he got “a bit carried away”, the court heard.
At one point Khan said money was needed for a tournament in America, but Judge Blackmore said the soccer club never went to the United States.
Mr Blackmore said Khan “was not a man of prior good character” and would “say or do anything” to reduce his criminality.
He also noted that Khan had a prior conviction for obtaining goods by deception.
He sentenced him to a maximum of six years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of four years and 10 months.
Khan has been in custody since December 2011, so he will be eligible for parole on October 15, 2016.
