A disgraced senior doctor has avoided jail after fraudulently inflating claims to insurers by faking bills for medical procedures.

Mohammed Sait – who has since retired – had worked as an orthopaedic surgeon at the former private BMI Fawkham Manor Hospital.

But Maidstone Crown Court heard how he billed insurance giants Axa and Aviva for thousands of pounds worth of work he had not carried out.

The sentencing was watched on close-circuit TV by a woman whose procedure was used by Sait to claim cash he was not entitled to.

His lawyers told the judge that the money will be repaid to insurers when the interest is agreed by lawyers.

Sait, 61, of Chislehurst Road, Chistlehurst, stood with his arms folded in the dock as the judge said he had attempted to avoid detection by faking letters from the insurers.

He had been convicted by a jury of forgery and fraud involving £17,636 from 2011 to 2016.

But the judge Recorder Sarah Counsell said she would reduce the sentence because of the seven and a half year delay in bringing the case to court.

She gave him a 12 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work for the community. He will also have to attend 25 days with probation to address his rehabilitation.

Defence barrister David Whittaker KC told the court the delay was "inexcusable" and the retired surgeon now is someone who suffers from "anxiety and is deeply depressed."

Sait submitted inflated claims to insurance companies while working at the private hospital at Longfield.

Colleagues at the clinic became concerned and he was initially cleared by hospital bosses but fellow orthopaedic surgeon Michael Thilagarajah “doggedly” pursued the matter with his bosses and asked for a robust investigation into the authenticity of the letters.

Dr Thilagarajah was told the matter had been concluded and wouldn’t be taken further. He was then the subject of a “poisoned pen letter” which was sent to a former patient of his falsely claiming he had performed a botched operation and sexually assaulted her. Sait was found not guilty relating to this.

The anonymous letter claimed to be from a nurse who was working at Fawkham Manor Hospital and witnessed the operation.

A police investigation into the matter found Sait’s DNA on the letter. Two nurses who were on duty at the time of the fictitious claim also had their DNA taken to check against the envelope the letter was sent in, but neither of their DNA profiles matched with the letter.

The court heard how when officers took Sait in for questioning and searched his house they found letters with the letterheads of Axa and Aviva insurers. Other letters, without any headings, pretending to be from employees at the insurance companies were also found.

Eventually, Sait was charged and was convicted at a trial last October.

Sait, who also worked as a consultant at Darent Valley Hospital, in Dartford, had denied the offences.

Reacting to the sentencing, his former patient Elaine Gurnham, who was awarded damages against the doctor said she was “disgusted.”

Speaking to KentOnline, the 62-year-old said: “I have been waiting for this and following the case but I cannot believe it.

“I am disgusted. There was no mention of the patients he affected. I feel today’s sentencing is a joke.

“He walked out of court and is now at home. They spent all these years and money for £17,000.”