Four people charged in connection with COVID vaccine passport fraud investigation
The National Crime Agency and NHS England launched a joint investigation
Four people have been charged following an investigation into the sale of fraudulent Covid vaccination records during the pandemic.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and NHS England held a joint investigation into the online sale of vaccination passports which allegedly made more than £200,000.
The NCA said Christopher Thompson, 36, from Horden, County Durham, Shahid Hussain, 33, from Middlesbrough, Ian Taylor, 42, and Abbey-Leigh Coates, 25, both from Darlington, were arrested by its officers in 2022 and 2023.
It said the investigation related to the creation of 1,168 fraudulent records between June 2021 and January 2022, some of which were generated at a health centre in Darlington and were allegedly sold on to the public.
The NCA explained that, during the pandemic, unvaccinated individuals bought vaccine passport records which were obtained illegally, allowing them to travel when others were subject to restrictions.
The agency suspected that organised criminals recruited healthcare professionals to produce the fraudulent records.
The Crown Prosecution Service authorised the four to be charged under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act.
They will appear at Peterlee Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Deputy director Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: "Receiving a vaccine is a personal choice but abuse of our healthcare system to enable unvaccinated individuals to bypass restrictions that are in place to protect the British public is illegal.
"Working in close partnership with the NHS England Counter Fraud Team, this investigation helped to secure the safety of our communities by preventing organised criminality from undermining the national pandemic response and benefiting financially from the damaging service provided."