Fraudster who sent abusive emails jailed

A man has been jailed for sending numerous threatening emails to his doctor and insurance staff after they spotted his fake claims for money and drugs and refused to pay out or prescribe.

Gary Lanchester aged 36 of Herries Close, Great Yarmouth, appeared before Norwich Crown Court on Tuesday 30 July 2024 having admitted to two counts of fraud, one of racially aggravated harassment and three of malicious communications.

He was handed a 22-month prison sentence.

The court heard how he had submitted several fake prescription claims and attempted to withdraw funds from his pension with Aviva by submitting a bogus ill-health form purporting to come from his doctor.

When these were spotted he sent numerous threatening emails to staff at Aviva saying he planned to ‘stab their security’ and ‘petrol bomb their building’.

Previously Lanchester had faked letters authorising the surgery to prescribe changes to his medication.

After these were identified as fraudulent he had numerous appointments with his doctor but was discharged from the service for over-medicating against advice.

From this point the doctor received numerous racial, threatening and abusive emails.

He also made threats towards another doctor containing numerous offensive, threatening and racist remarks which went on for a period of time starting in August 2023.

While in prison on remand he asked for 11 other offences to be taken into consideration by the court having been investigated further by Operation Converter, the unit which investigates and encourages defendants to admit to other similar offences they had committed but not been charged with..

These took place between February 2019 and November 2023 and comprised several instances of malicious communications involving a council employee, a dental practice, and an NHS Outreach Centre – all in response to not having his demands met.

He also admitted to damaging cars belonging to surgery staff on several occasions.

PC Jodie Jennings said: “Lanchester was horribly abusive and made vile threats of violence using the worst kind of racist language towards people who were just going about their day to day work and trying to help.

“People in the front line of health care should not have to put up with this type of behaviour which absolutely will not be tolerated in Norfolk.”