A UK doctor who came under fire several years ago over an elephant hunting trip has been sent to prison for an insurance scam worth nearly £200,000.
Benjamin Chang, 57, has been given a two-year jail term after being found guilty of scamming insurance companies by billing them for physiotherapy sessions that never took place.
According to a report by the
Telegraph, Chang claimed £183,000 while running his private medical practice from Milton Keynes and using consulting rooms at Harley Street in London.
The scam lasted for two years until one of the insurance firms became suspicious about the number of invoices coming from Proteus Healthcare, the
Daily Mail reported. The insurer discovered that Chang was running Proteus and that that the physiotherapist supposedly providing the treatment was non-existent.
Police found other cases in which Chang had supported claims from Proteus for physiotherapy. Authorities also seized his computer server and found “dozens and dozens” of forged invoices for named claimants, the report said.
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Judge Philip Katz said a doctor like Chang committing fraud of such scale was a “tragic case.”
“There was a gravy train passing by and you wanted to jump on it,” the
Telegraph quoted Katz as saying.
“You got greedy,” he added “You were living an ordinary and respectable life, you come from a respectable background of professional people who, I expect, are horrified to witness what happened as a result of the choices you have now made.”
Chang first made the news in 2009 when he was photographed sitting on an elephant that he had shot in Zimbabwe while giving a thumbs up. He defended his action, which angered animal welfare advocates.
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