A former Hadleigh IT manager has been jailed for five years and four months after admitting defrauding a hospital trust out of more than £800,000.

Barry Stannard, 53, who now lives near Chelmsford, was the sole director of two companies set up as suppliers to the former Mid Essex Hospital Trust (MEHT), which ran Broomfield Hospital.

Amy Oliver, prosecuting, told Chelmsford Crown Court that Stannard submitted false invoices to the trust from the companies between 2012 and 2019.

She said the former senior IT manager was authorised to approve invoices of up to £7,500, and that all the invoices submitted were for less than this amount and he approved them himself.

Ms Oliver said Stannard forwarded emails to colleagues which "supposedly came from people working at the companies", but "there's no evidence those individuals worked at those companies".

She said this was intended to "give the fraud further strength and make it look legitimate".

The prosecution barrister said Stannard used to "encourage colleagues to choose" quotes from the two companies, and would charge the trust VAT although neither company was VAT-registered.

The VAT he charged the NHS totalled more than £132,000.

Stannard had submitted a "nil return" declaration of interests form to the trust, but an investigation established he was the director of the two companies and was submitting and approving invoices himself.

He was suspended in September 2019 and dismissed at a disciplinary hearing held in his absence two months later.

"He admitted neither company had provided any legitimate products or services," Ms Oliver said.

She added that Stannard said the money had been used to fund a "lavish lifestyle", though his defence barrister denied this in court.

Paul Webb, mitigating for Stannard, said his client had written to the judge expressing his "remorse and shame".

"He and his wife bought a modest home that needed some significant improvement," said Mr Webb.

He said Stannard "envisaged his wife would return to work" but she chose not to, so "the expense of their new home renovation costs all fell to Mr Stannard".

He said Stannard did not lead a lavish lifestyle, the home has since been sold and the father-of-three is now divorced.

Judge Tim Walker told Stannard that money "destined for patients.. went into your own bank accounts".

"It's plain to me that your fraudulent activities had a serious impact on the financial ability of the trust to care for the patients that it existed to care for," he said.

"Had those monies been available to the trust they could have been spent on additional resources for the treatment of patients, as you are well aware."

Stannard admitted at an earlier hearing to two counts of fraud by false representation, and two counts of cheating the public revenue in respect of the VAT that was charged but not given to the taxman by the two companies.

He was jailed for five years and four months.

The court heard Stannard had convictions for three previous offences, including theft by an employee in 1986.

There were also two offences in 2000 concerning a stolen blank MOT certificate that Stannard filled in with his vehicle's details, one offence of handling stolen goods and one of forgery.

Sue Frith, chief executive of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, said: "Barry Stannard abused his position in an outrageous way to line his pockets with money intended for NHS services.

"We are aware of the significant risk that procurement fraud poses for the NHS, which is why the NHS Counter Fraud Authority has continually worked to develop fraud prevention solutions over the last few years.

"Today's sentence shows that the NHSCFA's investigative and preventative work tackling NHS fraud is vital.

"If you suspect NHS fraud, please report your concerns to us through either our online reporting form, or by calling our fraud and corruption reporting line."