Having in the past neglected the sensitivities of some who are of a delicate nature it is worth restating that the posts of this blog were originally created to highlight the obnoxious pursuits of those whose focus was on the preservation and increase of their wealth at the expense of the wider community,many of whom have not the birthright or professions of those who seek to enrich their already overladen riches.
If anyone of a sensitive disposition finds any of the posts to cause them undue duress then please do not hesitate to communicate these feelings to the blogger(myself),they will then be removed.Thank you
I know i know retirement and all that but if you wait long enough then your natural suspicions will be rewarded.Of course it is neither big or clever to mock the afflicted,especially when they are middle class professionals.Perhaps it is not fair that those in positions of privilege should pour scorn on those less blessed. Two down so who will be next? Merry Yuletide. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25471125 bbc wales website
Jochemus Hermanus Venter Venter had been 'highly thought of' in Llandrindod Wells
A dentist "driven by greed" who falsely claimed almost £48,000 for work on NHS patients has been jailed for 18 months.
Jochemus Hermanus Venter, 55, charged for £300 crowns when all he did was fillings and also put in bills for non-existent work.
Venter made more than 200 overpriced claims for both dental and orthodontic treatment at his practice in Llandrindod Wells, Powys.
He had admitted eight counts of false accounting at Cardiff Crown Court.
The claims totalling £47,947.43 were made between April 2006 and July 2010.
South African-born Venter had a contract with Powys Local Health Board to treat people at NHS rates.
'Sophisticated fraud'
The court heard that he would charge up to £40 for a sports mouth guard and then put in a £1,200 bill for orthodontic work.
Prosecuting barrister Carl Harrison said Venter "regularly and systematically" made false claims for dental treatment.
"He claimed for treatment not provided and for higher band treatments than the ones he had actually done.
Continue reading the main story
“
He has lost his good name and any chance of pursuing his career any further”
David Aubrey QC Defence counsel
"He also claimed for orthodontic treatment when no such treatment was provided."
He had sold the practice in 2008 to a dental company but continued working there, involved in mainly NHS work.
The NHS fraud service was finally alerted to Venter's scheme after concerns were voiced by the dental nurse and receptionist at the practice.
Venter's barrister David Aubrey QC told the court that Venter knew that what he was doing was wrong.
He said: "He was highly thought of in the community and was industrious and hard-working. Those who knew him could not believe it of him.
"He has lost his good name and any chance of pursuing his career any further."
The court heard that the practice's annual income from the NHS averaged more than £350,000.
The father-of-three was a school governor and had been well-respected in the town.
Venter asked the court to take 147 further offences into consideration.
Sentencing Venter to 18 months in prison Judge Tom Crowther told him: "This was a deliberate, concerted and sophisticated fraud over four years driven by greed."
Continue reading the main story
“
He made feeble attempts to justify his behaviour by stating that he believed he was not adequately paid by the NHS”
Claire Busby Crown Prosecution Service
Claire Busby, a specialist fraud lawyer from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Dr Venter abused his position as a National Health Service contractor to defraud the taxpayer out of a substantial sum of money over many years.
"This was direct theft from an important public health service.
'Greed'
"He regularly and systematically made false claims for the provision of NHS dental treatment and has admitted to a total of 155 fraudulent claims, covering instances where either no treatment at all was provided, or substantially less was provided than was claimed for.
"He made feeble attempts to justify his behaviour by stating that he believed he was not adequately paid by the NHS but this simply demonstrated his greed and self-interest.
"Those who commit fraud, in whatever walk of life, should know they risk prosecution in a criminal court."
The £47,900 has since been recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
More here
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/llandrindod-wells-dentist-jailed-stealing-6436760
A dentist has been jailed for 18 months for stealing nearly £48,000 from the NHS.
Dental
surgeon Jochemus Venter submitted fraudulent claims to NHS Dental
Services for the provision of dental treatments totalling £47,947.
Dr
Venter, 55, submitted the false claims from April 2006 to July 2010,
while working at Times Building in Llandrindod Wells under an NHS
contract with Powys Local Health Board.
He pleaded guilty on 7 October 2013 to eight counts of false accounting.
NHS
counter-fraud specialist in Wales, Mark Weston, said: “Dr Venter was a
highly paid professional, but was greedy for more. Today’s sentencing
demonstrates that crime against the NHS Wales will not be tolerated.
“[We]
will always seek the the strongest possible criminal and civil
sanctions for fraud and see that the losses are recovered and
re-invested back into the NHS for patient care.”
Claire Busby, a
specialist fraud lawyer from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Dr.
Venter abused his position as a National Health Service contractor to
defraud the taxpayer out of a substantial sum of money over many years.
This was direct theft from an important public health service.
“He
regularly and systematically made false claims for the provision of NHS
dental treatment and has admitted to a total of 155 fraudulent claims,
covering instances where either no treatment at all was provided, or
substantially less was provided than was claimed for.
“He made
feeble attempts to justify his behaviour by stating that he believed he
was not adequately paid by the NHS but this simply demonstrated his
greed and self-interest.
“Those who commit fraud, in whatever walk of life, should know they risk prosecution in a criminal court.”
PC Dyer report into the designated drinking ban concludes that the temple garden area has seen no arrests,which is good although he admits that the drinking problem has move to other areas of the town especially around the trainstation.Yes well we did say that. he also says that moving alcoholics from one place to another doesn't solve their drink problem. yes we did say that. he has also called on shopkeepers who sell booze to attend meetings to help with the problems. yes we did say that originaly also that the drinkers may have been excluded from the pubs,bars and hotels due to the price of the booze. yes we told you that. he also said that the police have liased with the drinkers to try to help them through their input. remember we suggesting that!
hindsight can be blinding but a clear view sometimes comes from the original suggestions.
As mentioned on andrew marrs 'start the week' a fortnight ago the blogosphere is a rambling non sensicle area.
But what about the newspapers, yes they have libel laws to watch out for but is the john terry case a landmark as its overturned a super injunction. This whole story has moved at a pace and is self serving by the gutter press who have used it to further their freedoms. There wasn't enough column inches in the original story and john himself was probably only trying to save his skin and a payout to his wife if it went to the wall. Not much of a story but more of a legal victory.
we endorse max mosely by stating gag the press and let blogosphere run crazy.
but couldn't such revelry be much better employed especially around the old stamping ground where parking warrents such strong emotions.
How about DEFRA or even PCC car park itself as that seems to be nominated by a lot of tax payers as a site for charging to park so why not a fine for those who dont pay.
young folks these days are given a bad image frequently but if you care to look back a few years then were things that much different.
as the rugby club were entertaining cardiff saries this saturday it prompted reflection not only on there trip to face saturdays adverseries but of revelry from yesteryear.
This current crop returned home from the capital with a prize asset taken probably from the side of the a470 near treforest.
no one in the llandod area could be anything other than impressed with the service delivered by the powys snow cleares and gritters during the icy and snowy festive season,an absolute first class effort especially around the supported housing projects in the town. Even if many of the boys have to endure steve fisher barking out the orders to them. they have even had the benefit of appreciation shown by one resident of a nearby street who made them a round of tea and coffee to perk them up during their work.well done lads.
The second part of this post has been temporarily deleted as it is an ongoing matter. for all those accusations of a cop out,geddit, then i am sorry.
so it's the party season and mad friday but sometimes corporate hospitality in llandod is not all that it should be. A former employee of the metropole regaled to us how the metropole were given a couple of crates of grot by carlsberg tetley by way of thanking them for their business. So slimeball MD Baird Murray decided to keep them for the staff xmas party. Quite generous when you think about it. However Mr Baird Murray in the true spirit of xmas decided to charge his staff £1 a bottle for the freebies at the party.
looks like the boys at the top o the tree at powys have recieved an early xmas present. Powys despite only recieving only 1% budget increase are prepared to issue the chosen few those smart fangled multi techie machines known as blackberrys.
the lil devices for email,phone,texting and eneral communication will set the tax payer back a sum of over £6000.
Now if these gadgets could be used from home for communicating at meetings say then the cost could be offset by keeping the councillors at home permenantly. We the tax payer could then save money on expensive food and drink allowance,petrol allowance,heating and lighting in the council chamber so on and so forth. we might get the full amount back!!!
enough it seems is enough with the good burghers of eastern radnorshire taking things into their own hands. A lively meeting at the memorial hall is reported in this weeks journal where locals have had enough of the unruly kids.They have threatened to sort things out for themselves if the police continue to ignore the problems. Hardly the correct route but then people power in all its varying forms does seem to bring results quicker than some agencies of democratic state.
And another east radnorian has been charged with an offence after he took it upon himself to daub an offending motorist's car who was parked directly in front of the gentlemans garage. The large 'NP' apparently stands for no parking which the accused was told to daub onto veichles who cause such an offence by a serving custodian of the law. Furthermore when the gentleman asked the serving officer whether he could also deflate the tyres the officer replied that was strictly against the law.
it has come to our attention that the surgery car park is being oversubscribed. a friend of ours recently went for her flu jab and found itdifficult to park as there were only two space available in the car park. That means there were up to twenty cars in the car park. But on entering the surgery itself our friend was suprised to see it empty apart from a few members of staff. So who do the other cars belong too?
our suspicions are that they are students and staff from coleg powys.
This is hardly fair although they,the staff and students will argue that their is no facilities in which to park.
Even before he takes his place as PM 'druggie' dave has shown what he's made of. U turns and lies. Unlike maggie he has turned on his heels over his promised referendum.
I suppose this means you can be a little bit pregnant!
Appeasing the party faithfull with promises and then relying on someone else to take a lead position. Hardly the work of strong leadership.
the BBC that is... Whatever you think of the BNP and Mr Griffin and lets be fair most of us dont think much of their policies. if they have won some sort of recognition into the mainstream of british politics then they should be afforded a fair hearing and not a trial,indeed unless they change their membership policy that may come.
The behaviour of the BBC's most senior political broadcaster was as hopeless as that of the performances of the representitives of the major parties with Jack Straw particularly weak.
As for the furore of whether Griffin should of appeared well he has already had a slot previously on the daily politics show with andrew neil which has been forgotten,on which some of his opinions were especially open and stomach churning. If the BBC were afraid or genuinely concerned with the reaction of the country to griffins appearence then why didnt they offer him a place on Radio 4's version of the show'any questions'. It seems they were trying to maximise their 'right on' values of free speech. Whether this was afforded all of the panelists is questionable. Does this mean then that the BBC is impartial? Politically meandering and offering trials by television. Will this then be extended t other flagship BBC programming.
Only time will tell if this appearence has powered the BNP or done them harm,the BBC were right to offer them a place as they have a core support who voted in a european representitive,indeed twice as many as Plaid Cymru.
What is not acceptable however is the political bias of the BBC in the name of free speech.
it is at this time of year that the metropole in llandrindod has it's busiest time in way of conferences, this week has seen major problems with parking in the surrounding areas. Areas where elderly supported housing folk shuffle about their business and school kids and young mums try to get to and from school. The chaos this week has come directly from the metropole who invite delegates in numbers that their car park cannot accomadate, this has seen the towns streets oversubscribed and left in perilously dangerous conditions,cars straddling pavements,blocking bus routes and traversing junctions. The metropole are employing a car park attendee whos job is to direct traffic onto the neighbouring streets when their car park is full. the same family that owns and manages the metropole also owns the derelict site adjacent to the auto palace that has been an eyesore for over 4 years and could at redeemable cost have been turned into a overflow car park.
I do feel sorry for many of the delegates attending conferences at the metropole as they sometimes have to walk a quarter of a mile to the conference from where they have parked.
Perhaps they should park in a pay and display car park and send the bill to the metropole who claim on their website that their is adequate free parking. or perhaps delegates will no longer feel like parking on the adjacent neighbouring streets especially if they find out about some of the short term serial offenders who take residence at the nearby gwynfa hostel. perhaps they might even consider taking their meetings somewhere more accomadating.
it was inevitable that the party with the biggest leadin the polls and with a following wind would eventually at their annual conference have to deliver some promises of wht they were going to do to get themselves elected. No suprise that the much vaunted inheritence threshold of up to a £1,ooo,ooo should be first proposed from the shadow government thats full of millionaires. more suprising is their suggestions and remember folks it is only suggestion that they and more exactly little georgie osborne is proposing the end of tax credits for middle englanders. Surely this is the sector of society on which they were banking on to propel them over the line and now they are going to end their extra income revenues such as child tax allowances and the £250 child savings grant. They are also proposing that instead of the state pension age moving to 66 in 2020 it be brought in by 2016 making pensioners put off their retirement and all those contributions to national insurance creating a shortfall that can only be met by pension credits, or are they slashing those aswell. Osborne said nothing suprise suprise about the unregulated banking system and huge salaries of the private secor but proposed a commitment to freeze public sector wages.These public sector workers include police officers,nurses, teachers,paramedics and other key workers. So apart from proposing to help the already super rich it seems the toriesare targeting those they were hoping to win them the election ,pensioners andkey workers.
It looks if there is a big conference at the metropole today. With a large overspill of traffic parking in the streets. one of the affected streets has recently had some road resurfacing and the council have ye to repaint the double yellow lines. This allowed conference delegates to traverse a junction,park where the lines should have been and generally over subscribe the streets. Most of the offending drivers seemed to be women as well which makes you wonder if general anti social and enviro degradation permeates through all sexes. Particular offenders were thedrivers of vehicles DY03WXL and DA56 PXC. Having informed dyfed powys police of the scenario and offences committed they were unsure the legal position,that is if fined for parking in such a spot whether a prosecution could be successfully brought against the drivers of the offending vehicles.
If a success is to be made of the commitment to clearways then all sides should be proactive and up to date, this includes dyfed powys police and powys county council road division.
Part of googles pursuit of world domination now includes the publishing online of as many classic reads as possible. They are skating very close to the wind with regard with their fragrant non recognition of copyright law. They have also brought their street view car into mid wales. It was spotted several times in llandod on tuesday 1st of september. whilst street view works wonderfully in big cities identifying public buildings and landmarks the concern has always been around the intrusion of privacy for residents. With that in mind, is it necessary to trawl the towns of mid wales and else where detailing small private residencies. Who does it serve? Within short time it will be accessible onto remote devices such as sat-nav,which would then open individual properties to unsolicitated attention. The only way to stop this commodifying of our planet is by protesting directly to those who choose to profit for their own needs. You can embargo google to withdraw your property from street view. Their may even be an oppertunity to take an injunction out against them for this invasion of privacy. Something that could be done collectively. Google strain on electicity and their pursuit of unrestrained world domination must be stopped.
The original purpose of this blog was to highlight the obnoxious pursuits of particular members of a small mid wales towns middle class at a time when internet scribing was out of reach of libelous legislation. Times change but peoples sensitivities oft do not. If you find the particular ruse of some of these posts to be beyond your threshold then for goodness sake inform the main contributor.
The opinions expressed are generally of the contributors and it is up to the reader whether to take them with a 'pinch of salt' or dismiss them completely.
