NHS workers made a fortune selling fake Covid vaccine records

Three NHS administrators made £412,000 during lockdown by faking Covid-19 vaccination records for more than 800 paying customers.

Hakeem Walters, 29, Rokibul Islam, 31, and Muhammed Ahmed, 27, made a fortune while employed as NHS administrators at a vaccine centre set up at Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford.

They falsified vaccine records for 847 people so they could escape harsh lockdown restriction and travel abroad, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Kathryn Drummond, prosecuting, said: ‘They ultimately make profits at the expense of the wider public at a time of national crisis, namely the Covid pandemic.

‘Each of them held a position of trust at the relevant time as an employee within the NHS.

‘They falsified 1,648 vaccine records relating to 847 individuals. They did so for profit.

‘That enabled those 847 people to enjoy additional freedom in times of lockdown, freedoms reserved for those vaccinated against Covid-19.’

They charged people £250 each for fake vaccine records.

Islam had access to the National Immunisation Vaccination System (NIVS), the court heard.

‘Mr Islam sold his confidential login details to Mr Ahmed for £1,000,’ said Ms Drummond.

Ms Drummond said Islam began his work as a Band 3 administrator and clerical bank worker for the vaccine project in June 2021.

‘Every single vaccine record associated with his login was false. He began his work in the NHS at a time of crisis. He obtained wide access. He sold wider access for one thousand pounds. He never created any true or honest vaccination’, she said.

Once the entries were submitted the NHS Covid-19 App showed people were fully vaccinated.

‘That would enable them to travel, attend certain venues, apply for work, jobs that had restrictions in place,’ the prosecutor added.

Sentencing, Judge Sally-Ann Hales said: ‘Between 17 August and 13 December 2021 you conspired to hack the NHS computer system to create false Covid vaccination records. You did so to make a financial gain for yourselves.

‘The evidence indicates that these conspiracies involved more people than just you three.

‘These are serious offences committed during the pandemic…the risk to public health is self-evident, and the harm that may have resulted is also self-evident.

‘The harm was not to any individual victim, or at least none that can be identified. The damage occasioned is to the wider public.’

Addressing Walters the judge said: ‘You abused your position of trust over a number of months. You did so in a sophisticated way, taking steps to conceal what you were doing.

‘It is said that you were not motivated by financial gain but by genuine anti-fact beliefs.

Judges Hales said: ‘These offences are so serious that only immediate custodial sentences are appropriate.

‘Four years on it is too easy to forget how important the vaccine scheme was in preventing deaths and protecting vulnerable members of the public.

‘People no different from your parents who all have health issues.’

Ahmed and Walters were both jailed for four years and four months, while Islam was jailed for one year and seven months.

Islam, of Ettrick Street, Tower Hamlets, Walters, of Brooke Road, Hackney, and Ahmed, of Courtland Avenue, Ilford, East London, all admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and conspiracy to cause a computer to perform a function with intent.
ENDS