NHS paramedic who stole two defibrillators from ambulances and sold them for £500 on Facebook is struck off

An NHS paramedic has been struck off after stealing defibrillators from ambulances and selling them online.

Dominic Barone sold two of the devices for £500 plus £40 postage via a Facebook page, a disciplinary panel was told.

The Good Samaritan who bought them from him them donated them to charity, a panel heard.

Welsh paramedic Dominic Barone has been struck off after he sold two defibrillators and lied about a compensation claim for a shoulder injury from the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust

The health service worker also lied to claim compensation for a shoulder injury that he said he got while working on the job, a tribunal heard.

The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service had already suspended Mr Barone for the false injury claim when new evidence came to light of the fraudster selling defibrillators.

Mr Barone - who worked for the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust - had sold the defibrillators to someone who donated them to the charity Welsh Hearts, which helps put the life saving devices in communities for public use.

A defibrillator is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart and is used to save the life of someone in cardiac arrest.

The person who donated the machines - referred to as Person A - was then tracked down and he provided screenshots that showed he had purchased them from Mr Barone in November 2017 - when he still worked for the ambulance service.

The screenshot's showed that Mr Barone was also a member of Buy And Sell First Aid Training Equipment And First Aid Supplies, among other groups on Facebook.

Person A had seen the advert for the life saving devices and offered £500 plus postage for the two units.

A Good Samaritan saw a Facebook advert for the two defibrillators and paid £500 plus £40 in postage and packaging for the devices (file photograph) 

The offer was accepted by Mr Barone who in response said that £40 would be needed to cover the postage cost.

In explanation of the postage cost Mr Barone said: 'It sounds a lot but to post one is £19 as I've sold a few of these now and I don't use couriers as I don't trust that they'll actually deliver the goods in a safe way.'

After stealing the defibrillators, the tribunal heard that Mr Barone submitted an Adverse Incident Report stating that he had sustained an injury to his left shoulder while attending a patient.

Mr Barone reported that the stretcher he used to transport the patient from his home to the ambulance was not fully kitted, causing him to injure his shoulder.

Mr Barone then submitted a personal injury claim to the Trust relating to the same injury in March 2018.

But he later admitted at a tribunal hearing that he lied about how he came to injure his shoulder.

The tribunal ruled: 'The Panel has concluded that Mr Barone's behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the Register.

'Mr Barone's misconduct has brought him, his profession and his regulatory body into disrepute.

'A member of the public would rightly be appalled if a registrant who has admitted openly to making a false and fraudulent injury claim which would have, if successful, resulted in public funds being used, and had also sold for his own gain publicly owned medical equipment, were allowed to remain on the Register.'