Sunday, August 24, 2008

Believe what you want

A man has just been jailed for 18 months for fraud on the NHS. He was a stop-smoking counsellor, paid £45 for each successful case. He claimed 2,017 successes in 6 months, the next-best adviser could manage only 75.

Nobody thought this suspicious. His deception came to light only when officials examined his methods with a view to sharing best practice

The judge was scathing: “This scheme has properly been described as pseudo-medical … an astonishing way to spend public money

A spokesman for the Department of Health said:” We know that NHS stop-smoking services have been hugely effective in helping people quit

So that’s all right then