Staff swaps QR code to steal Rs 52 lakh from Chennai hospital
The arrested person was identified as M Sowmya, a native of Tiruvarur district.
Representative Image
CHENNAI: A 24-year-old woman working as a cashier at a hospital in Anna Nagar was arrested by the Avadi city police for allegedly embezzling Rs 52.24 lakh over a period of two years.
An internal audit revealed that she made the patients pay the fee through a QR code linked to her bank account instead of the hospital account and did not record the bills in the register.
The arrested person was identified as M Sowmya, a native of Tiruvarur district.
She was arrested based on a complaint by Dr B Mythili (47), who runs a fertility hospital in Anna Nagar for the past nine years.
Investigations revealed that the hospital management suspected foul play in May, after which they checked patient records for a month and found that some of the patients were not entered into the system.
Subsequently, an internal audit was conducted during which it was found that Sowmya has been embezzling money since February 2022, just a year after joining the job.
“She used to tell patients to pay in cash claiming that the QR code of the hospital’s bank account was not working. If the patients did not have cash, she gave them her bank account QR code instead of that of the hospital,” the police said.
The Avadi police’s Central Crime Branch arrested Sowmya on Tuesday, and produced her before a magistrate who remanded her in judicial custody.