“It is a disgrace what they’ve done."
An NHS doctor and her husband have been jailed after selling stolen Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the height of the Covid pandemic.
Attiya Sheikh worked as a locum at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, Scotland.
Alongside her husband Omer Sheikh, she sold hundreds of NHS gloves on eBay between May and October 2020, making nearly £8,000.
The couple were sentenced to 10 months each at Paisley Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to reset.
Police found 121 unopened NHS-branded boxes of gloves in the attic of their home in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire.
The scheme came to light after Fannin UK Ltd, a supplier which only distributes PPE to NHS facilities, discovered its products listed on the auction site.
Dr Sheikh claimed she was handed the boxes by an unknown man in a car park. However, despite an investigation, no such person was ever traced.
Sheriff Sukhwinder Gill, who handed down the sentence, told the pair she found it difficult to “comprehend” their actions.
She said: “This was at a time when the world was in a state of heightened fear and anxiety at the start of the Covid pandemic.
“The NHS was facing an unprecedented crisis. There was an extreme shortage of PPE, not only in this country but globally, and society was trying to come to terms with the pandemic.
“As a doctor, you clearly knew that this PPE was essential for your colleagues’ safety and, by extension, their families.
“Your dishonest actions deprived your colleagues of this equipment. You decided to sell the PPE that you knew was stolen from the NHS online for financial gain.
“It is hard to imagine a more egregious breach of trust, not only in respect of your colleagues but of society.
“You did this together out of sheer greed.”
Gordon Young, head of NHS Scotland Counter Fraud Services, said the couple “took advantage of the NHS at a time where the service was under extreme pressure”.
He said: “It is a disgrace what they’ve done. Particularly, a clinician who works for the NHS was aware, particularly during the pandemic, of the shortage of this equipment that was for their colleagues’ and staff’s safety.
“A clinician working in the hospital would know during the pandemic just the importance of PPE and the pressure the service was under in getting PPE.”
The fraud was uncovered after NHS Scotland was alerted by Fannin UK Ltd. Following an investigation with eBay, the Sheikhs were identified as the sellers.
Mr Young added: “They had been selling these gloves for some time. She had made over almost £8,000 in sales. We believe she was selling them for between £15 to £20 a time.
“It’s estimated she must have sold something in the region of 400 boxes. We contacted Police Scotland and got a search warrant for their house.
“Accompanied by the police, we searched their house and recovered 120 boxes of gloves in the loft.”
The pair, who have three children, had asked the court to consider non-custodial alternatives. But Sheriff Gill said the offence passed the custody threshold.
Faye Cook, Procurator Fiscal for North Strathclyde, said: “This was a particularly egregious crime.
“The public put their trust in medical practitioners.
“As a hospital doctor, Attiya Sheikh betrayed that trust at a time of acute need when patients and NHS staff relied heavily on the availability of Personal Protective Equipment.
“For her and her husband to benefit financially from this criminal conduct will shock many people.”
“But now they have both been brought to account for their crimes and must face the consequences of their actions.
“We will always prosecute financial crime of this nature where there is a sufficiency of evidence and it is in the public interest to do so.”
The General Medical Council (GMC) confirmed that Dr Sheikh remains registered but is currently subject to interim conditions.
A GMC spokesperson said: “Dr Attiya Sheikh is currently registered with a licence to practise but with interim conditions on her registration pending the conclusion of a GMC investigation.”
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