The director of a company that issued thousands of fake medical certificates for HGV applications has been jailed having been convicted of fraud, writes Peter Brown.
Andrew Eburne was the director of Doctors on Wheels and was found guilty of being responsible for medical certificates being signed off for HGV drivers by unqualified staff. He received four-year custodial sentence.
He was prosecuted in April following a long-running investigation after concerns were raised by the DVLA. He was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court.
Doctors on Wheels claimed to use licensed doctors, but an investigation found that unqualified staff were signing off applicants for HGV licences and completing the D4 medical certificate required as part of the application process.
Consultations carried out in the back of vans across the UK would often last just minutes.
Concerns were initially raised by another company and subsequently by the DVLA, prompting Swansea Trading Standards (TS) to launch an investigation in 2019 using undercover officers posing as HGV licence applicants.
The investigation uncovered a major scam, with D4 certificates being signed off by unqualified individuals working for the company. Those signed off included one applicant who was “recorded as having perfect vision” despite having a glass eye.
Prosecutors told the court that the value of the fraud was £681,699.
Judge Huw Rees said Andrew Eburne had “put profit before safety” and played “a leading role” in “business dealings that served to compromise public safety”.
Rhys Harries, who led the investigation for TS, said: “People who were known to the DVLA as having health conditions were being signed off as perfectly fit.”
Prosecutor Lee Reynolds added: “We will never know the true extent of the public safety issues caused.”
Laura Phillips, defending, told the court that the business had operated legitimately between 2007 and 2017 “before it became dishonest” and that “Mr Eburne fully accepts he has brought this on himself”.
Five other defendants who worked for Doctors on Wheels were found not guilty.
A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will be held in December.
