Paramedic caught flogging stolen life-saving NHS medical equipment on Facebook
A PARAMEDIC was caught selling stolen life-saving medical equipment on Facebook.
Andrew Barker, 49, used a fake profile to peddle two defibrillators from his ambulance service — each worth £18,500 — for £2,500 apiece.
Barker claimed he bought them from a man “with cash for a friend”.
Their serial numbers matched those missing from the East Midlands Ambulance Service.
Magistrates in his home town of Derby jailed him for 26 weeks last October after he was convicted of handling stolen goods.
A Health and Care Professions Council disciplinary hearing has now struck him off.
Panel chairman Lesley White told the tribunal, in Kennington, South London: “The medical equipment was the property of the NHS.
“Mr Barker, suspecting that they may be stolen, attempted to sell them for personal financial gain.
'DEEP REGRET'
“Members of the public were deprived of these items of life-saving medical equipment and there was also a potential cost to the public purse.
“The public would regard the behaviour of any paramedic who handled defibrillator equipment which he suspected to be stolen to be deplorable.”
Andrew Barker told The Sun on Sunday of his “deep regret”.
He said: “I am now looking to the future and wish to put this whole episode behind me for the sake of my family.”
A spokesman for EMAS said: “As an NHS organisation we take a zero-tolerance approach towards anyone who commits this type of crime.”
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