Nurse given £60,000 because he was scared of buses

Feb 26 2008 by Clare Hickie, Liverpool Daily Post

A PSYCHIATRIC nursing assistant with an aversion to public transport claimed almost £60,000 in taxi fares from the state.

John Jones was entitled to the money under the Access to Work scheme because of panic attacks, but he had more than doubled the true number of journeys he made, a court heard yesterday.

For four years, he submitted bogus taxi receipts and forged a colleague’s signature on his claim forms, but eventually his fraud came to light.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the prosecution did not deny that Jones, 46, who suffers from claustrophobia and agoraphobia, has a genuine medical condition and was eligible to help with taxi fares.

But £33,223 of the money he received had been fraudulently obtained, said Kevin Slack, prosecuting.

He began working as a psychiatric nursing assistant in August, 2001, for Merseycare NHS Trust and was based at Rathbone Hospital, in Wavertree, Liverpool.

“The following April he began claiming for Access to Work funding which is designed to help people with disabilities find work. He claimed to suffer panic attacks when using public transport and required taxis,” said Mr Slack.

His claim was approved and he had to submit taxi receipts and have his claim form signed by a colleague who confirmed he had been working.

Twice-married Jones alleged he was working seven days a week, though he never worked more than five a week.

In January, 2005, he was swapped to working at the Ashworth high security hospital in Maghull and his claims continued.

The journey to work from his home, then in Beechtrees, Digmoor, Skelmersdale, to Ashworth was shorter than to the Rathbone, but he still claimed the same amount.

The fraud came to light in March, 2006.

Jones, of Wortley Road, Fazakerley, admitted 32 offences of false accounting and had 24 similar offences taken into consideration involving a total of £59,000.

Judge David Swift adjourned sentence until next month to enable the probation service to consider the psychiatric report prepared on Jones. He was further remanded on bail.