GP manager who stole £155k during affair with doc must pay back £41k
Surgery manager, 56, who stole £155,000 from Scottish GPs’ practice while having affair with doctor must pay back £41,000
- Jacqueline Rodger had a secret affair with a doctor while embezzling the cash
- Rodger, of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, admitted embezzling £155,012.71 last year
- The thefts prompted the Greenhills Medical Practice in East Kilbride to close
A woman who stole £155,000 from a medical practice while having an affair with a doctor has been ordered to pay £41,000 in compensation.
Jacqueline Rodger, 56, had a secret relationship with Dr Iain Hathorn while she was practice manager at the surgery.
The pair had been having regular trysts but the affair ended when Rodger got married.
Their relationship was revealed after an investigation was launched into cash problems at Greenhills Medical Practice in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire.
Rodger, of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, admitted embezzling £155,012.71 between April 2014 and February 2018 and was jailed for 18 months last year. She was released on a tag from HMP Edinburgh in March after serving less than a third of her sentence.
Jacqueline Rodger (above) was a manager at the Greenhills Medical Practice in East Kilbride, Scotland. She stole more than £155,000 from the surgery over nearly four years
Rodger appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and was ordered to hand over £41,157.50 as part of a confiscation order. The court heard the money had come from the sale of a house and will be handed over to her old bosses.
Rodger, who claimed to have taken the cash due to stress, told Hathorn by text message: ‘Iain, it’s Jacqueline. It was me that did it. I’m so sorry, so ashamed. You’re all such lovely people.’
A message sent to another doctor at the surgery said: ‘I am so sorry and ashamed of what I have done. You were all so good to me, I deserve everything that’s coming my way.’
She later claimed she had been forced into the relationship, but a police investigation dismissed her allegations. It showed Rodger, who had worked at the centre since 2008, had been moving money to her own account disguised as bogus payments to locum doctors and office supply firms. After the money was stolen the medical centre was forced to close.
Sheriff Linda Nicolson said: ‘I will make an order directing the entirety of the compensation has to be paid out of the confiscation order I have granted.’
Rodger was ordered to pay back £41,000 of the embezzled cash during a hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court (pictured). The court was told she sold a house to generate the money
Rodger had originally been accused of taking £224,375.39 but prosecutors accepted her guilty plea to the lesser amount.
Kenny Donnelly, deputy crown agent, said: ‘This woman’s crimes caused significant disruption to a community’s GP services.
‘This compensation order should serve as a warning to anyone involved in financial crime of any kind that we will not stop at prosecution.’
‘Even after a conviction is secured, COPFS will continue to use Proceeds of Crime legislation to ensure that funds obtained through embezzlement are confiscated and compensation awarded where appropriate to the victims of such crimes.’
During Rodger’s trial last year, depute fiscal Jennifer Cunningham told the court: ‘As a result of this investigation and the actions of the accused, the Greenhills partners decided to cease their contract with the NHS and, as of 31st October 2018, Greenhills Medical Practice ceased to exist.
‘Many of the doctors within Greenhills had been part of the practice for over 20 years.’
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