A SEDBURY man has been jailed for four years for his part in an £822,000 NHS fraud.

Robert Howells, 65, helped Shirenewton-based ringleader Mark Evill defraud the Powys Teaching Health Board in mid-Wales.

Evill was jailed for seven years when they appeared for sentencing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Friday, November 2.

Evill and Howells were employed by an agency as project managers and a probe was launched after an anonymous tip-off to the health service’s fraud and corruption reporting line.

Evill, 47, directed that a £342,000 water supplies and electrical supply went to a company that he set up himself – even using the real names of U2 rock stars Bono and The Edge, Paul Hewson and David Evans, on invoices.

The court was told Howells knew from the outset of Evill’s connection to the company and a third defendant, 43-year-old Michael Cope of Merthyr, became aware later.

Evill funded a lavish lifestyle through the fraud and investigators proved he bought a Ford Focus car worth almost £11,000 for Howells.

Howells and Evill both changed their initial not guilty pleas to guilty and Cope was found guilty by the jury.

Juliette Simms, specialist prosecutor for the CPS, said: “Mark Evill took hundreds of thousands of pounds from this public body out of greed, fixing it with colleagues to ensure his business received lucrative contracts for work.

“He enjoyed a luxury lifestyle with the NHS money he defrauded.

“His partners in crime originally claimed they did not know about Evill’s involvement with the company, but the CPS proved Howells was complicit in the fraud.