A former health service assistant finance manager who kept more than £146,000 in accounts he controlled has been ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work in the community for his “dishonest conduct towards a public institution”.

Sajid Khan, 34, who worked at Bradford and Airedale Primary Care Trust (PCT) until May 2008, was also ordered to pay £25,000 in costs and was sentenced to 12 months in jail suspended for two years.

Khan, of Walmer Villas, Manningham, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to retaining wrongful credit totalling £146,143.10 between September 26, 2005, and February 11, 2009.

Bradford Crown Court heard today Khan has repaid the amount to the PCT in full, with help from his family.

Prosecutor Craig Hassall told the court his dishonesty was uncovered when another employee in the finance department found an email relating to a transfer of £54,000 which was to enter Khan’s brother’s account. It was stopped before it went ahead. Further enquiries led to the uncovering of 24 fraudulent payments, with all accounts credited held by members of Khan’s family.

When he was arrested he had with him 30 bank cards relating to his family’s accounts. His home was searched and documents were recovered including statements for the accounts.

Judge Colin Burn said: “You are a man with no previous convictions, you yourself had a job with some significant responsibility at the PCT, which was the complainant in this case.”

He said as the money had been repaid it was not a situation where money which should be used for the treatment and health of the people of Bradford had been lost.

Abbas Lakha QC, for Khan, told the court his client, a father of two, was previously of impeccable character and very much regretted his actions.

Mr Lakha said his client continued to maintain that he had nothing to do with the original transfer of funds from the trust’s accounts to his family’s accounts.

Speaking after the hearing David Hall, Anti-Fraud Lead at NHS Protect, which tackles crime across the health service, said: “Sajid Khan’s behaviour abused the trust his employees and colleagues placed in him, and was an attempted slur on the good name of the NHS.”