Man ordered to pay back £30,000 for baby milk fraud

A man who bought specialist baby milk which had been fraudulently obtained from the NHS has been ordered by a judge to hand over more than £30,000.
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Court news

Jun He, 48, of Hereford Close, in Crawley, paid just £2,500 for a stock of Neocate which is supplied for babies who are lactose intolerant and which had cost the NHS more than £16,000.

In March, He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years at Ipswich Crown Court after pleading guilty to acquiring a quantity of Neocate milk knowing it was the proceeds of criminal conduct between January 2013 and March 2014.

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On Friday (November 17) he returned to the same court for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing designed to recoup as much as possible of what was obtained through his offending.

The court heard that specialist financial investigators had established that He’s benefit from his offending totalled £30,171.

The same investigation revealed that he had assets exceeding that figure.

Judge David Goodin ordered He to hand over £30,171 within the next three months and warned that failure to comply with that deadline would result in six months imprisonment.

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Judge Goodin also ordered that NHS England should be paid compensation from the money being confiscated from He.

The woman who over-ordered the milk and sold it on line was Sarah Moore, 35, of Tudor Close, Framlingham, who last year was handed a four month prison sentence suspended for 12 months.

She had admitted fraud by falsely representing that she required further supplies of Neocate on prescription.

Moore had advertised the Neocate on eBay but her advertisement was withdrawn by the site’s operators as being unacceptable.

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However, before the advertisement was removed it had been seen by He who contacted Moore and agreed to pay £2,500 for the milk.

Moore’s over-ordering of the milk and subsequently He’s purchase of it came to light as a result of an NHS stocktake.