A Nigerian-born doctor, Richard Akinrolabu, has been sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to defrauding the National Health Service (NHS) in the U.K. of more than £268,000, following an investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA).
Akinrolabu, 61, from Orpington in Kent, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation at Woolwich Crown Court on 3 September 2025.
He was formally sentenced on 4 November 2025. At the time, he was employed as a “trust grade specialist registrar” in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH), part of King’s College Hospital (KCH) NHS Foundation Trust.
Between October 2018 and December 2021, while claiming to be unfit to work on-call or at night at KCH due to illness, Akinrolabu secretly took on and worked night shifts at three other NHS trusts.
These additional shifts occurred at Princess Alexandra Hospital, East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, Mid-South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, and Basildon Hospital.
Investigators found that he did not obtain permission from KCH for this outside employment, and he failed to disclose these extra jobs. While Akinrolabu was simultaneously drawing his regular full salary at KCH, the trust also had to hire locum doctors to fill in for the shifts he left vacant. In his sentencing remarks, Judge David Miller criticized Akinrolabu’s actions, saying: “You lied to occupational health, your colleagues and your employer …
The public doesn’t expect doctors to lie for personal gain.” Ben Harrison, Head of Operations at the NHSCFA, said the case “demonstrates a clear and deliberate abuse of trust … by working additional on-call and night shifts, despite being unfit to do so … Akinrolabu defrauded the NHS of substantial funds that should have supported patient care.”