A FORMER finance director of Barnsley Hospital has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after being found guilty of theft.

Janet Ashby was sacked by the hospital after a whistleblower discovered a ‘black hole’ in the accounts which later grew to £12m.

Ashby, 52, of Watermill Court, Dearne Hall Road, Low Barugh, was found guilty of theft to the value of £67,500 at Leeds Crown Court after a four day trial.

She was charged with three counts of theft, but the prosecution offered no evidence on two counts.

The case against a co-defendant, Daryl Ashby, 49, of the same address, was dropped at the start of the trial when the CPS offered no evidence against him.

The hospital’s financial worries came about in 2014, when a whistleblower uncovered a £2.3m ‘black hole’ in the accounts. Until then, everything in the accounts of the hospital was apparently in order.

At the time, hospital bosses admitted they didn’t know what had caused the gap in finances, but said there was no risk to patients and jobs were safe.

Two firms of auditors were commissioned to comb through accounts to discover what went wrong - and how. The matter was also raised with the Clinical Commissioning Group, which commissions the town's healthcare services, and NHS watchdog Monitor.

Investigations uncovered evidence one-off income was misrepresented in the accounts, while predicted cost savings were overstated for the 2013/14 year by around £4m.

Ashby, who joined the board of directors in August 2012 was suspended and later sacked for gross misconduct, but no criminal proceedings were ever brought against her.

As a result of the financial irregularities, the trust was held in breach of licence by health watchdog Monitor and following an investigation by the regulator, the hospital was forced to put the turnaround plan into place.

The hospital has implemented cost improvements plans to try and reduce the deficit and that breach has now been lifted.

The current finance director, Michael Wright, joined the board in 2015, and the hospital is this year aiming to reduce the deficit from £10m to £8.7m.

Barnsley Hospital did not wish to comment on the case.