Rajeev Reghunath

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Daily Mail
Psychiatrist, 45, is struck off after he fiddled timesheets and falsely claimed £40,000 worth of NHS work shifts when he was actually on holiday
By Richard Percival
March 13, 2024

A consultant doctor has been struck off after he falsely claimed for £40,000 worth of NHS work shifts when he was on holiday.

Locum psychiatrist Dr Rajeev Reghunath, 45, fiddled public money by filing faked timesheets which wrongly claimed he was working eight hour shifts when in fact he was thousands of miles away in Turkey, Abu Dhabi or India.

Reghunath was able to get away with his scam for two years until the discrepancies were spotted by staff at Greater Manchester Mental Health Foundation NHS Trust when the doctor left the UK on a one way flight to Bangalore.

Inquiries revealed he had forged the signature of a fellow consultant psychiatrist to help with illicit payments for 35 shifts for which he was paid up to £1,300 a time.

At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, Reghunath who lived in Timperley, near Altrincham was found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

He is still thought to be India with his last email message sent to the tribunal in July 2023 reading: ‘I do not have a permanent residence in the UK.. I will try check my emails on a regular basis here on and will reply promptly as much as I can.’ …

The scam took place between January 2019 and February 2021 when Reghunath was working as a locum consultant psychiatrist in the Trafford Division via an agency, called Pulse Healthcare Limited (Pulse)…