AN NHS finance manager has appeared in court charged with carrying out a £15,000 fraud against a health trust.

Philip Parr, 42, is accused of the deception while working as finance manager for the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, which was based at the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate, near Nelson, at the time.

He is charged, between April 2007 and March 2008, of fraud, by abusing his position and ‘causing or exposing the trust to loss’ by his conduct.

Richard Taylor, prosecuting on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions and the NHS counter-fraud service, said that the amount of fraud alleged in the case was more than £15,000.

Magistrates declined jurisdiction and directed that proceedings should be heard before a crown court judge.

Parr was released on unconditional bail to reappear at the Bolton court again on December 9, for committal proceedings.

Parr, of Ash Tree Grove, Oak Ridge, Nelson, was originally supposed to appear before Reedley magistrates to answer the fraud charge last month.

But the case was transferred to Bolton Magistrates’ Court as his father Graham Parr is a magistrate on the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale bench.

Mr Parr senior is also chairman of Calderstones NHS Trust and a former estates director at Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Trust.

The trust, now known as NHS East Lancashire, provides primary health care for Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, Rossendale and the Ribble Valley and is now based in Regent Street, Nelson.