A FORMER Royal Surrey County Hospital IT director, and a company director of a supplier, pleaded guilty to corruption over the awarding of data recording software for the A&E department.

Peter Lewis, 57, from Windlesham, pleaded guilty at Guildford Crown Court to receiving payments from Richard Moxon, 41, of Wybunbury, in Cheshire, in return for awarding him an information and communications technology contract worth £950,000 in the first year alone.

The cost of the fraud to the hospital amounted to just under £81,000.

Each month Moxon would submit multiple invoices from different companies he controlled.

The invoices were all priced at £15,000, or just below, which was the value Lewis was able to sign off without authorisation.

In return for the arrangement, Moxon sent Lewis nine payments totalling £73,770, and made a further payment of £7,200 to a stables to whom Lewis owed money.

All the payments were made between January and December 2011.

The fraud came to light in December 2011 when the RSCH trust conducted a disciplinary investigation into Lewis’ relationship with another supplier. The trust immediately passed the case to Surrey Police.

Subsequent work found that 40 per cent of the software supplied by Moxon did not meet the needs of the trust’s accident and emergency department.

They were able to recover some of the lost money by incorporating Moxon’s software into a new system in August 2012.

But the trust still declared losses in its financial year of 2011/12 of £433,000 as a result of the project.

Detective Sergeant Chris Rambour, of the Surrey and Sussex Economic Crime Unit, said: “Peter Lewis chose to breach the trust placed in him by the NHS and to feather his own nest.

“It was only through the diligence of the trust his corruption came to light.

“I am proud of the painstaking forensic accounting our officers carried out in order to bring this case to court, and grateful to the Royal Surrey for their support in our work.

Alf Turner, deputy chief executive of Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Royal Surrey expects its staff to act with honesty and integrity at all times and will fully investigate any suspicions of wrong-doing.

“Mr Lewis broke these fundamentals and we are pleased that, although it has taken a long time, justice will be served.

“We would like to thank the police for their ongoing support in pursuing this matter to its positive resolution and we await the sentencing outcome.”