A FORMER director of the John Radcliffe’s hospital trust who lied about his qualifications, will not have to pay back any of his salary after confiscation proceedings were dropped.

Peter Knight was spared jail in January for lying on his CV in order to get a £130,000 a year job.

The 53-year-old of Blagrove Road, Teddington, committed the fraud when he applied for the role of Chief Information and Digital Officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) in 2016.

He was handed a suspended two-year jail term for the single offence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

READ AGAIN: Our report from the original sentencing hearing.

The charge related to his time in the role between September 1, 2016 and August 20, 2018.

Prosecutors had begun confiscation proceedings in order to recover any ill-gotten gains from the fraud.

However, at a hearing held at Oxford Crown Court yesterday the proceedings were scrapped and no money will be confiscated.

Julian Lynch, on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, said that the case had been delayed while awaiting the outcome of a Court of Appeal case which was 'on similar terms.'

He said that the decision of that case was 'unambiguous' stating that where work is obtained by deception 'but not in itself unlawful' it would be 'disproportionate' to seek confiscation of wages.

The court also heard that Knight has since found further employment in Yorkshire and court costs could be sought.

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Presiding Judge Nigel Daly ordered that Knight pay back £425 in court costs as well as a statutory victim surcharge.

During the original sentencing hearing prosecutor Julian Lynch, outlining the case, said an ‘anonymous referral’ was sent to OUH on May 9, 2018 stating that Knight did not have the Classics degree which had been listed on his CV.

A search of his HR file revealed a copy of the degree certificate was not there and an email was sent to him requesting the documents.

The court heard Knight said he would ‘dig it out’ but despite a series of emails chasing him for the information the senior figure ‘put off and put off’ these attempts.

He eventually resigned on August 20, 2018.

Knight told the trust he had not completed his degree and blamed a recruitment firm for the inclusion of the line in his CV.

From there the trust’s internal investigation was moved to the police and in June 2019 Knight admitted one charge of fraud by false representation.

He formally pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates' Court on December 3.

An OUH statement released post-sentencing said it had 'strengthened its recruitment process to ensure that it is not possible to avoid confirming the academic qualifications of applicants prior to appointment.'