A former GP has been ordered to pay £183,000 in three months or face two years in prison after being jailed sending fraudulent invoices for medical treatments.
Dr Benjamin Chang, 57 of Sunnyfield, Mill Hill in London, was employed to carry out medical examinations on behalf of solicitors, for people who made personal injury claims after a car accident.
According to the City of London Police, Dr Chang – a registered but not practicing GP – would conduct the examinations through his company, Hertford Healthcare, and then invoice the solicitors for the assessment.
However, he would then send another invoice from a company called Proteus Healthcare, which he said provided the patients with physiotherapy sessions after the medical examination.
But Dr Chang made up both Proteus Healthcare and the physiotherapist said to have carried out the sessions.
Dr Chang was arrested on 16 May 2014 and was found guilty on 27 January 2017, when he was sentenced to two years in prison.
He has now been ordered to pay £183,752.50 in three months, following an investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
If he fails to pay the money, Dr Chang will face another two years of jail time.
Detective Sergeant Matthew Hussey, of the City of London Police’s IFED, said: ‘Chang’s deceitful actions have led to him not only serving time in prison, but also now having to pay back the money that he fraudulently gained.
‘The City of London Police and the Crown Prosecution Service worked together to ensure that Chang did not benefit from his illegal actions and we are pleased that he will now be paying the price.’
He added that the money ‘will be returned to the victims of the crime and will go some way towards repaying them for being defrauded’.
