Dr Muhammad Waqas Rabbani Found Guilty of 'Systematically' Defrauding HSE Medical Card Scheme
A doctor has been found guilty of "systematically" defrauding the Health Service Executive through its medical card payment scheme after a two-week trial at Carlow Circuit Court.
Dr Muhammad Waqas Rabbani, of Tullow Family Medical Centre, The Square, Tullow, was found guilty of 13 counts of fraud and not guilty of four counts of fraud after an hour's deliberation by the jury.
The offences were committed on different dates between 3 and 29 September 2018 and related to €2,229.72 paid to Dr Rabbani by the HSE in October 2018.
Judge Mary Morrissey directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty on three further charges due to insufficient evidence.
Prosecuting barrister Mark Lynam BL described the offending as "a systemic attempt to defraud the HSE" in his closing speech to the jury.
He said that claim forms for treatments to medical card patients were created "for the purpose of tricking the HSE," and had never actually been performed.
48 civilian witnesses gave evidence over the course of the trial to say they had not received the treatment Dr Rabbani claimed they did.
Several also said they did not recognise the signatures on the forms as their own.
The claim forms were then submitted electronically to the Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme (PCRS), inducing the HSE to pay Dr Rabbani for the services.
The defendant had signed off on each form, admitted to submitting some of the forms through the PCRS online portal, and stood to gain financially from the fraud, said Mr Lynam.
Lorcan Staines BL, defending Dr Rabbani, made analogies between the eight years it took the state to bring this case and the slow pace of the asylum system and infrastructure delivery in this country.
"It's classic Ireland," he said.
Mr Staines said in September 2018, Dr Rabbani had a large number of patients and was working long hours.
He alluded to his client's sound character in stating that the doctor was continuing to see patients at his practice in the evening after the trial.
Mr Staines noted the HSE froze funds due to Dr Rabbani after launching its investigation in 2018, meaning there was effectively "no loss" on its part.
Given the financial and reputational cost to Dr Rabbani from the trial, "he has effectively been punished sufficiently," he said.
Dr Rabbani was remanded on continuing bail until 31 July when a date for his sentencing hearing will be fixed.