Gambling-addicted Portsmouth GP is struck off after stealing more than £1m of NHS money

Dr Rumi Chhapia embezzled a staggering £1.13 million from a healthcare group as he chased the ‘panacea’ of hitting the jackpot on internet slot machines and roulette.

The crooked family doctor defrauded the group of GP surgeries immediately after being put in charge of its accounts, leaving its finances in disarray and other directors needing therapy.

The 45-year-old, who earned nearly £200,000 a year, lied to suspicious colleagues that he was ‘hacked’ due to cyber crime as he made a total of 65 transfers to his own bank account.

Gambling companies were understood to be stumping up £904,000 of the NHS money Chhapia blew, in what a court heard is a ‘very unusual’ instance after the doctor wrote grovelling letters to them.

He gambled away a total of £2.5m, of which he recouped £1.2m. The funds were stolen while the NHS was struggling to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, Chhapia has lost his licence to practise following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal.

The father of one - who has a seven year old child - co-founded Portsmouth Primary Care Alliance [PPCA], a group of 16 GP surgeries.

In August 2020, Mark Stubbings - who was in charge of its finances - was signed off sick and Chhapia volunteered to be director and manage its accounts.

But, Mr Stubbings kept a ‘watching brief’ and raised the alarm when he saw its £1 million account was reduced by £600,000.

Deceitful Chhapia claimed ‘all my accounts have been hacked’ including his Amazon and PayPal - but continued to embezzle money.

From August 20 to September 30 in 2020 he embezzled £1,133,704.50 in 64 separate payments.

PPCA director Mark Swindells said: ‘The financial impact was profound, the people of Portsmouth have lost a sizeable chunk of NHS money.

‘The event has caused GP surgeries to lose trust in the PPCA and it has caused embarrassment. Although we are financially solvent, it's reduced the overall budget and cased cash flow issues.’

He added other directors 'struggled to come to terms with his actions' and required counselling.

Chhapia, who was jailed for 40 months at Portsmouth Crown Court last year, has now been struck off the medical register.

Medical Practitioners Tribunal Chair Ian Comfort said: ‘Dr Chhapia placed patients at risk of harm and breached a fundamental tenet of the profession by taking funds that were necessary for patient care.

‘The Tribunal took into account that this was not a single incident of fraud, but 64 separate transactions over 41 days, totalling a significant amount of money.’

Mr Comfort criticised Chhapia for ‘lying to colleagues’ while continuing to make transfers and said there was little evidence of remediation.

When Chhapia, from Portsmouth, appeared in court last year and was jailed, his barrister Stan Reiz QC said he faced thousands of pounds of debt.

He said: ‘The temptation increased and he took some money and gambled it and lost it and he had crossed that line.

‘The reason why the amount is so high is because he entered into a desperation phase and thought the next bet would be the panacea of all his bets.’

Sentencing him at the time, Judge Keith Cutler said: "This is a very serious abrogation of your responsibilities as a doctor.. your duty should have been to provide the very best care to your patients and that should have been the pinnacle, but you were dishonest.

‘In any event you were seduced by your addiction by your addiction to gambling and it was not just a one-off.’

Of the £1.13 million he embezzled, Chhapia paid back £238,000 and gambling companies will pay back £904,000.