THE boss of a Bromsgrove opticians' company, who used the names of dead patients in a £37,000 National Health Service swindle, has been jailed for 12 months.

Michael Hampton was not a qualified optician, but he also forged the names of professional optometrists who worked for his practice, Hampton Optical in Crown Cose, to claim money.

Hampton, aged 54, of Tittonfields, Stourport, pleaded guilty at Hereford Crown Court to 29 offences of false accounting, and asked for 824 similar crimes to be taken into account.

Sir Andrew Watson, prosecuting, said the NHS began checks after the number of claims for small spectacle frames rose from two to 140 per year.

The investigation revealed that not only had claims been submitted for people who were dead, but Hampton had also forged the signatures of nursing staff at the St John's Court and Barnt Green nursing homes in Bromsgrove.

Asked why he had resorted to forgery, he said it was "just stupidity" and a bid to boost his business. He estimated that he had a personal gain of £15,000 over two years.

Nicolas Cartwright, defending, said Hampton was a hard-working family man who could be generous and selfless.

Mr Cartwright said Hampton had been devastated in summer last year by the death of his 20-year-old daughter, Sarah, in a road crash.

He had set up a charity in her name to help Romanian orphans, and visited the country every three months to help in the work.

There was no suggestion that he had set up the charity with a cynical motive because he did not know at the time that he was being investigated.

Judge Alistair Macduff said it was one of the saddest cases he had come across.

Hampton, he said, had made a mess of a hitherto blameless life.

He ordered that £30,000 due to Hampton and held by the NHS should be seized.

The judge said he would decide in six months on a £7,349 confiscation order requested by the prosecution and also on an application of £20,272 for investigation and legal costs.

After the case, Jim Gee, director of counter fraud services for the Department of Health, said: "Our health service was founded on a principle of public trust and we cannot let that be undermined by exploitation of those values."

Detective Inspector Ian Clarke, of West Mercia Police's economic crime unit, said: "We are delighted that an attempted fraud that could have cost the NHS thousands of pounds has been detected and we hope that this will serve as a warning to others."