Sentences of up to nine years in prison have been handed out in the Remédio Santo investigation into theft and fraud within Portugal's National Health Service.
A total of 13 convictions have been secured by the prosecutors with three suspended sentences for to those who successfully fiddled the system for years to their own financial advantage.
The court heard of the existence of a criminal association with members in the north, central and south of the country who conspired to carry out a scheme to defrauded the state of more than €3 million.
Of the 18 defendants there were six doctors, two pharmacists, seven sales representatives, a beautician, a Brazilian businessman and rather curiously, a bread vendor.
Three of the defendants received suspended sentences of five years and two were acquitted of all crimes in a fraud that started at least in 2009, maybe earlier, and involved complicit doctors writing out prescriptions to supposed NHS users for expensive prescription drugs that were immediately sold on.
With the illicit paperwork the defendants bought medicines in several pharmacies where they only had to pay part of the total price, with the state later paying the balance to the pharmacies.
The drugs obtained were then resold internationally, particularly in Germany and Angola, with the profits later distributed among those involved in the scam.
In early December the Health Minister Paulo Macedo admitted that the latest report on fraud within Portugal’s NHS showed that €118 million has been fraudulently spirited away this year alone.
Macedo estimated that "6% of the annual expenditure in the NHS relates to mistakes and corruption," or €6 in every €100 allocated to the health service.
The successful conclusion to the Remédio Santo investigation should send a strong message to those considering stealing from the health service, funded by the nation's taxpayers.
