Jignesh Patel, 46, of 11 Princes Park Manor, Royal Drive, London N11, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court on Friday 16 October 2026.
Rahil Patel, 42, of 11 Churston Avenue, London E13, was also sentenced to six years’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court on Friday 16 October 2026.
They had both been found guilty of three counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of converting criminal property on 6 October 2026 following a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.
NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) investigators will now use their powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) to recover these lost funds.
His Honour Judge Cole said:
“This was committed out of greed and you were equal partners in the serious fraud designed to make you a lot of money.
“This was a thoroughly impressive investigation, expertly presented on all sides.”
Jignesh Patel is a pharmacist who owns Wise Pharmacy, 93 Fore Street, Edmonton, London. He also owns a pharmaceutical wholesale business called Actipharm Limited.
The investigation concerned the dispensing of high-cost drugs, which are normally dispensed in a hospital environment, and payment for prescriptions originating from four NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) areas: Barnet, Enfield, Newham, and Tower Hamlets.
Following anomalies in the expected prescribing data, the CCGs obtained copies of the prescriptions and checked them with the named GPs. These checks identified that there was no documentation to support the patients’ clinical need for the drugs and confirmed they had not been prescribed.
Enquiries by the Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS) identified seven high-cost medicines being dispensed by Wise Pharmacy which would not normally be expected in primary care. The drugs were Sprycel, Noxafil, Atripla, Eviplera, Tobramycin, Truvada and Viread.
In June 2016, an alert sent by NHS England to pharmacies in North London in 2016 highlighted the point that, due to the specialist knowledge required, it was unlikely there would be a need to dispense the identified drugs in Primary Care, and that pharmacists should contact the GP to confirm authenticity if presented with a prescription for them.
The NHSCFA obtained all the prescriptions dispensed by Wise Pharmacy for the period January 2015 to November 2017. Examination of these prescriptions identified 1,639 false prescriptions in the names of 24 GPs for 440 individual patients and 6,983 dispensed items. The GPs named as prescribers were interviewed and confirmed that they had not issued the prescriptions.
The reimbursement value for the drugs listed on the false prescriptions paid by the NHS to Wise Pharmacy was in excess of £1.3 million.
The two medicines showing the largest losses were Noxafil (posaconazole) and Sprycel (dasatinib), used in the treatment of leukaemia. These medicines are tightly controlled and would normally only be supplied where there was a genuine and documented clinical need. Investigators focused on these drugs due to their high value and the control of the supply.
Examination of the bank accounts of Wise Pharmacy and Actipharm Ltd identified a payment of £28,900 from an EU pharmaceutical wholesaler for Noxafil. Further enquiries identified sales of drugs, including Noxafil and Sprycel, by Actipharm to pharmaceutical wholesalers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
Evidence from European wholesalers was obtained through European Investigation Orders (EIOs) submitted by the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecutors in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium in November 2018.
In May 2019, NHSCFA presented the investigation and its evidential requirements to German authorities at Eurojust in The Hague. In March 2020, Danish police, assisted by NHSCFA, attended a Copenhagen wholesaler. The evidence linked drugs obtained by Wise Pharmacy through false prescriptions to their subsequent sale by Actipharm to European wholesalers.
The sale of Noxafil and Sprycel obtained using false prescriptions to the Netherlands and Germany totalled £779,405.
Following the NHS England alert, Wise Pharmacy ceased claiming reimbursement for Noxafil and Sprycel but continued obtaining the medicines using stolen NHS prescriptions. Invesitgators identified the amount not claimed back was £45,000 for Sprycel and £463,8881 for Noxafil.
Jignesh Patel was arrested on 6 December 2017 and interviewed under caution. He gave a no comment interview. A search of his properties was carried out at the time of arrest, during which images of computers and mobile telephones were taken and £190,000 in cash was seized as part of the investigation.
In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) regulates the distribution of drugs and requires wholesale businesses such as Actipharm to employ a Responsible Person (RP). An RP is responsible for ensuring that the conditions under which a licence was granted have been, and are being, complied with.
At the time of these offences, the RPs for Actipharm were Jignesh Patel and Rahil Patel. As Responsible Persons for Actipharm Ltd, they were responsible for accurate record-keeping and had knowledge of where the pharmaceutical drugs were obtained from and which companies they were sold to. The investigation established that Actipharm was selling Sprycel and Noxafil to other wholesale companies despite not having purchased them, meaning they could only have been obtained through Wise Pharmacy.
Rahil Patel was interviewed under caution on 14 February 2020. He answered no comment to all questions put to him during the interview.
A number of text messages between Rahil Patel and Jignesh Patel regarding the purchase of false prescriptions and drugs were found and formed part of the evidence at trial. These included:
“Drop the nox to the warehouse today”
“U WANT MORE Sprycel N NOXA let me know asap”.
“Get me the scripts from the scrip guys”
“I got scripts”
Ben Harrison, Head of Operations and Engagement at the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, said:
"Our expert investigation team followed the evidence, both in the UK and Europe, to bring these individuals to justice. This case demonstrates that there is no hiding place for those who seek to defraud the NHS.
"Jignesh Patel and Rahil Patel worked together for several years, obtaining drugs using false prescriptions and selling them on to European pharmaceutical wholesale businesses.
"We will actively pursue any criminals that seek to defraud the NHS of vital funds and every pound stolen from the NHS is a pound that cannot be spent on frontline services, and the NHSCFA is committed to pursuing those responsible."
You can report NHS fraud anonymously on 0800 028 40 60, our 24-hour reporting line powered by Crimestoppers. You can also report it confidentially on our website at www.cfa.nhs.uk/reportfraud.