A family doctor who stole to pay an "unexpected" £90,000 tax bill and then falsified accounts to cover his tracks has been spared jail.

A judge told Sittingbourne GP Dr Lasanthan Aiyathurai it was "very sad" to see him in the dock for what was a "gross breach of trust and reputational damage."

He added that although the married doctor had carried out a "sophisticated, calculated and systematic" theft, there were exceptional circumstances which enabled him to impose an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Aiyathurai, of Maidstone Road, Gillingham, must wear an electronic tag for the next four months to ensure he stays home between 8pm and 6am and must carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Maidstone Crown Court heard today he was one of three directors of Swale Community Healthcare Ltd, a federation of GPs, and "in control of the purse strings" when he plundered £25,000 from the business bank account in 2017 after discovering "out of the blue" that he owed the tax man £90,000.

A miscalculation meant he was being paid more than he should have been.

The error happened when he started work at the Sittingbourne Memorial Medical Centre in 2014. His deceit was only discovered by chance in February last year when a fellow director checked the federation's bank balance.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright said he expected to find £27,000 but only found £16.30.

An investigation revealed Aiyathurai, 40, had paid £10,000 direct to HMRC and transferred other amounts into his own bank account for onward payment.

"I became desperate. I might be struck off for this..." Dr Aiyathurai

He also falsified the end-of-year business accounts to cover his tracks. When confronted, he immediately owned up, apologised and told his colleague in a phone call: "I need to keep my job. I am genuinely begging.

"I became desperate. I might be struck off for this. Nobody else knows about this. I will lose everything."

Aiyathurai admitted theft by employee and furnishing false information.

All the money has since been repaid by family members but the court was told the federation had suffered "a loss of reputation and trust" with NHS Swale Clinical Commissioning Group, which pays and plans for healthcare in Sittingbourne and on the Isle of Sheppey, NHS England and other medical partners.

The court heard he had hoped to pay back the money himself in April last year with an anticipated tax rebate.

It was said his employers accepted responsibility and loaned him £25,000 to help him pay what he owed HMRC. Aiyathurai also managed to negotiate with the taxman a similar amount off the total bill.

But when he was faced with a shortfall of £25,000 Gudrun Young, defending, admitted he made a "colossal mistake" and dipped into the federation's account for over a year.

She suggested his case may be part of a wider problem affecting the NHS.

Referring to a recent BBC Radio 2 report she heard of other GPs receiving larger tax bills than expected, she said: "He may not be alone in this. It may be a larger problem."

Miss Young told the court although he had breached the trust in him "in the most terrible fashion" his financial difficulties came about through "no fault" of his own.

She insisted Aiyathurai was in "complete ignorance" that he was earning more than he should have been.

"This is not someone who mismanaged his own finances. It was the practice's responsibility to know what should be deducted at source," she explained.

"As far as he was concerned that had all been calculated correctly and properly.

"It was the practice's fault, if I can put it bluntly, that suddenly he was told he had to pay £90,000 with no means of paying it.

"He should have taken other avenues, whatever they may have been. The colossal mistake he did make was deciding to deal with it in this catastrophically bad way."

She explained Aiyathurai viewed it as a "victimless crime" as the money was just sitting in a business account with "no realistic prospect of being used" for a considerable period.

But she added the GP, who has since been accepted as a volunteer on a children's educational advisory panel, was deeply ashamed.

"The colossal mistake he did make was deciding to deal with it in this catastrophically bad way..." Gudrun Young

"His whole career is in serious jeopardy, a career he worked hard for, a career he loved, a career he was proud of and one he was good at.

"It is a shame for everyone that this committed and hard-working GP won't be able to practise again."

The court was told that "hard-working and otherwise decent" Aiyathurai qualified in 2004, became a GP in 2011, and went on to help set up the healthcare federation in 2015. After a stint at Chestnut Surgery in Sittingbourne he joined the Memorial Medical Centre.

But his career now lies in tatters with a General Medical Council misconduct hearing ahead of him.

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Judge David Griffith-Jones QC told Aiyathurai he could have chosen "an alternative course of action" to pay his tax bill instead of resorting to dishonesty.

He said: "On any view this was calculated, systematic offending over a period of some 12 months.

"As a GP holding the position of responsibility and trust you were expected to exercise the highest levels of professional conduct.

"Your offending therefore represents a gross breach of trust both in your capacity as a doctor but also towards the GP practices concerned, their patients and, indeed, your colleagues.

"Your behaviour also caused severe reputational damage to the organisation which, it should be highlighted, would have proved terminal had your family not stepped in to repay the money you had taken."

But he said there would be "quite devastating and undeserved" consequences on Aiyathurai's wife of 15 years Joanna and their three children if he was jailed.

Mrs Aiyathurai, who was in court, was said to now be the only breadwinner and therefore faced losing the family home if her husband was jailed.

Judge Griffith-Jones said it was this mitigating factor, together with his guilty pleas, remorse, an "impressive" number of testimonials and stress he was suffering from at the time, that enabled him to avoid a sentence of immediate imprisonment.

"The effect of any immediate incarceration would be to inflict very severe punishment not just on you and, of course, you could not complain at that, but on your immediate family," he added.

"For them the effect would be quite devastating and, I should say, undeserved. Your wife would have to give up the work she has undertaken to fill the void of the loss of your earnings and the family home would most likely have to be sold.

"It is largely for that reason, but also taking account of your remorse and the other mitigation that I have referred to, that I feel it is appropriate to take an exceptional course."

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