Jacqueline Shacklady, 51, of Greenfield, Caerleon falsely claimed she had worked weekends and bank holidays, and even submitted travel expenses for a conference she never attended. 

 

As a band seven, she was in a management position at Caldicot Health Centre, Monmouthsire, earning between £31,697 and £41,787 a year managing 15 district nurses. The local authority employee who was supposed to sign off on Shacklady’s submitted timesheets never checked any of them. 

 

She was only caught when a colleague overheard her suggesting to someone who was also having financial issues that they too should “fiddle” their timesheet. 

 

An internal investigation found 29 false overtime claims, and 43 false claims for enhanced bank holiday pay. The hospital promptly sacked her.

 

At Cardiff Crown Court on Wednesday 15th August 2018, Shacklady pleaded guilty to defrauding Aneurin Bevan Health Board from March, 2015 to July, 2016. 

 

She was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, will wear an electronic tag for 20 weeks and will pay costs of £2,516.42, plus a £100 victim surcharge, on top of the stolen NHS money which she has already repaid.  

 

A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We have a dedicated fraud investigation team who take appropriate action in cases such as this, where the integrity and actions of a staff member sadly fell far below the standards we expect of our employees. 

 

“We are pleased to be able to say that the losses incurred in this case have been repaid in full and will be restored to the public purse.”

 

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If the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board had enforced clocking terminals across their hospitals, then this sad fraud wouldn’t have happened. 

When an employer uses a clocking terminal to manage their time and attendance, employees must be present and physically clock in. This data is recorded in the central WinTA.NET system, and end-users cannot edit this.

 

Using the self-service module, employees can see their own clocking timesheets so any genuine misunderstandings about worked hours would not arise, or would be easily visible and easily addressed by management.

 

There are two methods of clocking in and out using the Time and Attendance Wales management system. 

 

The first is using contactless proximity smart cards. These are about the size of a credit card (55mm x 85mm x 2.2mm) and are thin and flexible enough to be carried in your wallet. 

 

They operate using well-proven and reliable RF (Radio Frequency) reading technology. This gives a consistent read range, and a theoretically infinite lifespan. 

 

The smart card microchip, is a passive device which holds a unique ID number that can’t be duplicated. As a smart card enters the reader’s electromagnetic field, it is automatically activated.

 

The other clocking method is using biometrics. We offer finger scanners and hand scanners. 

 

Neither of these store prints, as that is an unnecessary use of personal information. In the finger scanner, the print patterns are converted into a code through a secure algorithm. The hand scanner stores the geometry, size and shape of the hand. These are then stored for future authentication.

 

Whenever registered users have their fingerprints scanned, a comparison is made between the live fingerprint and the stored fingerprint template and if the two match, the event is saved in the Time and Attendance controller database.