Boland, 51, from Briton Ferry used her trusted role to pay herself thousands of pounds a month on top of her £53,000 salary with the money being disguised as being payments to a locum doctor.
Swansea Crown Court heard Boland had stolen a total of of £324,706.85 over a four-year period by the time she was suspended in March 2022.
Peter Donnison, prosecuting, said: “Ms Boland began working at the Fairfield surgery in Port Talbot, a GP centre with more than 800 patients on its books, in 2009.
“At the time of the fraud the defendant was practice manager, a role which meant she had sole responsibility for the surgery’s finances including organising payment to doctors and staff and paying bills and expenses.”
The prosecutor said the theft of the money has put the surgery at ‘substantial financial risk’, left staff devastated and had a significant emotional impact on the two partners in the practice.
One of the senior partners was said to have required counselling, had trouble sleeping and suffered panic attacks since discovering Boland’s crimes, which took place over a five-year period.
Some of the monthly payments made into Boland’s account, ranging from around £2,500 to £13,000, far exceeded the partners’ own salary payments.
When a senior partner at the surgery discovered money was being wrongly paid into an account every month, Boland claimed it was an administrative error, then that there had been an underpayment to HMRC.
Judge Catherine Richards noted the fact Boland was the single parent of a 10-year-old daughter and said: “The impact of this sort of fraud is varied – emotional, practical and financial.”
The starting point for sentence carries a five-and-a-half years custody but will be reduced to four years to reflect the mitigation in the case, primarily Boland’s previous good character and the significant impact on the defendant’s daughter.
With a one-quarter discount for her guilty plea, Boland was sentenced to three years in prison. The defendant will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Following sentencing, Cheryl Hill, deputy operational fraud manager for the NHS Counter Fraud Service Wales, said: “Boland abused her position and the trust of her employers and colleagues for her own personal greed.
“NHS CFS Wales will now use their powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to recover the money Boland stole and return it to the victims.”
[Lead image: South Wales Police]
Discover more from Swansea Bay News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
