Three NHS workers who profited by £412,000 for conspiracies to hack the NHS NIVS system and falsify covid vaccination records were sentenced this week to a total of over 10 years custody.
Muhammed Ahmed, Rokibul Islam and Hakeem Walters had worked as administrators in the NHS during the covid pandemic. Ahmed and Walters, who played the leading roles in both conspiracies, had obtained the log in details for the NHS NIVS system and used them to hack the NHS systems and falsify records. They took steps to cover their tracks by using VPNs to conceal their IP addresses, creating false appointments and identifying the batch numbers and vaccine used on those days to conceal their entries. Customers would provide their names, dates of birth and NHS numbers to the defendants who would send proof by screenshots via Telegram. Profits were tracked through bank accounts as well as crypto wallets.
In a short but intense four month period during the pandemic in 2021, 1,648 vaccination records were fraudulently created allowing 847 people to enjoy freedoms reserved for double vaccinated people. During sentence, the judge identified a number of harms caused by the offending including compromising the NHS computer systems and the obvious wider public health risk.
Prosecuted by Kathryn Arnot Drummond instructed by the CPS Serious Economic, Organised Crime and International Directorate.
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