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A contractor who received 12 fraud convictions after submitting fabricated quotations to obtain Covid-19 business support grants has been struck off by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

Sundip Singh Gill was convicted at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on December 2024 of offences under section 12 of the Fraud Act 2006 having entered a plea of not guilty, and shortly afterward referred himself to the GPhC. He received a suspended 20-week sentence for each count and was told to pay costs of £3,000 and complete 200 hours’ unpaid work.

Mr Gill made 16 applications for Relight Programme grants offered by City of Wolverhampton Council for two pharmacy companies where he was a director, with 12 of these applications found to be fraudulent.

In addition to business support grants, the Relight scheme offered incentives of up to £5,000 for businesses to improve their premises and to reduce their carbon footprint, with owners required to submit two like-for-like quotations and the cheapest quote approved by the council.

He claimed on his applications for these grants to provide quotes for shop layout improvements and energy reviews – but the same quotes were entered on multiple applications and the relevant companies said they had never given Mr Gill quotes for their services.

Quotations put forward as coming from Woolstone Ltd and DSC Care Ltd were in fact produced by either his companies or ones where associates of his were directors, which were not involved in the shop refit or carbon reduction works being claimed for.

The applications, all of which were submitted on or around January 23, 2022, were in most respects identical to one another except for the company name provided, with the same invoice number used on several forged quotations.

Mr Gill told the fitness to practise committee he has reflected deeply on his “abhorrent” behaviour and that having reflected on his conduct he is now a changed person, adding that he has relinquished all ties to his former businesses and now works as an employee pharmacist.

But the FtP committee said it was “of the view that a registrant who has been convicted of twelve offences of dishonesty, at the potential expense of the public purse during a national emergency, plainly undermines public confidence in the profession and in the regulator”.

Mr Gill was removed from the register, with an interim suspension imposed during the 28-day appeal period.