Middleton con artists John Leigh and Deborah Hancox ordered to repay £185,000 to NHS

John Leigh and Deborah Hancox

John Leigh, 56, and Deborah Hancox, 46, from Middleton, have been ordered to repay £184,930 to the NHS.

Leigh, who worked in IT, was jailed for three years eight months and Hancox, who helped train doctors, was jailed for two years in 2014 after admitting conspiracy to defraud and concealing criminal property.

Between 2003 and 2008, the NHS managers masterminded a £1m fraud using bogus companies they set up while working for the former North West Strategic Health Authority to sell products to the NHS at highly inflated prices.

The con artists used the money to lead luxury lifestyles, buying a cottage in the Lake District, a Jaguar convertible and investing hundreds of thousands of pounds in businesses in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

At a hearing at Manchester Crown Court on Friday, Leigh was told he must pay £177,999 within three months, or face a further jail sentence of six months. Hancox will serve an additional two-month sentence if she does not pay £6,930.

The money will go to NHS Health Education England.

Sue Frith, of NHS Protect, the department that launched the investigation, said Leigh and Hancox had ultimately diverted money meant for patient care.

She added: "They would be in a far better position if they had just worked honestly for a living, as the vast majority of NHS workers do."