48-year-old surgeon, Sudip Sarker, has been jailed for 6 years after he was found guilty of fraud after lying about his surgical experience to get a job as a consultant at Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.
Sarker had lied about his experience to acquire the £84,000 per annum job. It is alleged that he had twice as many patients die as his colleagues.
He worked at Alexandra Hospital from August 2011 to June 2012. It is said that he had lied about performing 51 out of 85 keyhole bowel operations working on his own, when in actuality he only worked on 6.
The NHS was left with a £2 million bill for 19 medical negligence claims against Sarker, who managed to fool an expert panel of interviewees into giving him the job at Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust.
Initially, prosecutors decided that there was a lack of sufficient evidence to bring gross negligence manslaughter charges, however, inquests will commence this year relating to four of Saker's patients who died. The victims were aged between 68 and 84.
While sentencing Sudip Sarker at Worcester Crown Court, Judge Robert Juckes told him, “I have to sentence you for the lies you told in an interview. On the job description you knew what it required and you told highly significant lies and grossly exaggerated. There has been criticism of your lack of questioning. It was your exaggeration that I cannot ignore. It had consequences that were disastrous. You were in work which puts people's lives at risk so there is very high culpability indeed.”
The judge stated that the trust could not be blamed for giving Sarker the job as he had provided proper references from his previous employers at the Whittington Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital; both hospitals in London.
Sarker will also face a proceeds of crime hearing in May.
