IT worker admits stealing NHS laptops to sell

An IT worker has admitted stealing laptops from the NHS to sell them online.

David Polwarth, 44, was employed by the NHS and working in Carlisle when police were contacted after a stocktake revealed four missing computers.

Polwarth was one of the "trusted employees" to have access to a secure facility where the equipment was kept, the city's magistrates' court heard.

He admitted four counts of theft and was handed a 12-month community order requiring him to complete 100 hours' unpaid work.

Prosecutor Diane Jackson told the court that police were contacted in March amid suspicions that the laptops, each valued at £275, had been stolen.

"They could also see that some of the items had been put up for sale on eBay," she said.

She said Polwarth's initials matched the ones on the seller account and a search of his home found two of the missing laptops.

"It was later found he had previously sold two," the prosecutor said.

Polwarth, of Grasmere Street, Carlisle, resigned from his post before any disciplinary proceedings from his employer, the court heard.

In a statement, an NHS spokesman described Polwarth's actions as a "breach of trust".

"He was working for the NHS at a time of financial pressure and has taken laptops to sell for his own gain," he said.

Katie Scattergood, mitigating, said Polwarth had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and was selling the laptops to buy food.

"It is more out of necessity than any other reason," she said.

As well as the community order, district judge Philip Holden ordered Polwarth to pay £550 compensation to the NHS for the two laptops that were not recovered.

He told the defendant: "[Your crime] is aggravated by the position of trust that you found yourself in."

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