‘Guilty plea to NHS scam was taken over the phone’

A woman used another person’s name to gain medical treatment costing the NHS more than £18,000, a court heard. Natalie Francis, 54, was committed to Southwark Crown Court for sentencing but the hearing could not go ahead when it emerged she had pleaded guilty to fraud ‘by phone’. Francis, of Norwood, southeast London, admitted fraud by false representation, between 19 July 2016 and 22 October 2021, when she appeared before magistrates last month. According to the charge she made a…