A SOUTH coast dentist is receiving up to £3m a year from the NHS — and channelling payments to an offshore firm.

Richard Marques, who runs two dental surgeries with his two brothers, is paid by the NHS for looking after his patients in Weymouth and for dental care in prisons.

Although the brothers say the income is justified, the scale of the fees will raise new questions about the way the government has used the extra resources poured into the NHS. Last week it was reported that some GPs are earning up to £250,000 per year.

The Weymouth practice has the largest known income from the health service. The practice with the previous highest publicly disclosed NHS income was based in the West Midlands and was receiving £2.2m.

NHS income for the Weymouth practice is sent to a company which documents suggest is based in the British Virgin Islands. “These dentists have hit a goldmine,” said one source with knowledge of the practice.

Mike Penning, a Conservative MP and member of the Commons health select committee, said: “It’s a serious matter if NHS funds are being paid into offshore accounts. This may be perfectly legitimate, but it needs to be properly investigated by the government and to establish whether this is being done for tax reasons.”

The Marques brothers’ two NHS practices operate in modest premises at a health centre in Weymouth and in three rooms above a nearby chemists. A maximum of four dentists work at the two practices at any one time, but an informed source said its fees for dealing with patients in Weymouth were about £1m a year.

The practice is also used to run a national prison dental service, which contracts out work to dentists around the country. The annual income from this is about £2m.

The Marques brothers would not disclose their salaries last week. They have to pay the practices’ expenses and other overheads out of their income from the NHS.

Marques, who this weekend criticised the British tax system for being punitive, would not comment on where the funds were deposited. “If I’ve earned the money it’s not public money any more,” he said on Friday, before flying off for a break in Marbella. “People should [instead] be looking at whether they are getting the value for money.”

The two Weymouth practices are operated by Oakerstead Trading, which is used to invoice the NHS and to pay staff, who describe it as “an offshore company”. There is no record of such a firm in the UK, but official sources in the British Virgin Islands said a company of that name was registered in its jurisdiction.

Offshore companies can offer legal tax advantages to individuals and businesses in Britain. The Marques brothers would not comment on the reasons for apparently sending money offshore but there is no suggestion they have broken any tax laws.

Marques’s brother Victor, who is an accountant and works at the practice, would not comment on Oakerstead, but confirmed the prison service work was worth about £2m a year. “Some people own dental practices, and that’s the way it is,” he said.

Marques has a reputation in Weymouth as an affable and generous character. He lives in a £500,000 house, drives a Porsche Boxster and dines out regularly at Enzo, a smart Italian restaurant on the town’s fashionable Esplanade.

Last week he would not comment on the financial operations of his practice, but said it had a very good reputation. “We’ve dedicated an awful lot of effort to making our name as good as it can possibly be,” he said. His brother Michael is also a dentist with the practice.

The practice advertises “Weymouth Dental Prison Service” on a website. It states: “We operate two dental practices and are one of the biggest national health dentistry suppliers in the southwest.

“From our head office in Weymouth we operate a nationwide prison dental service, with contracts to supply dental services throughout the UK.” It does not say it is owned or operated by Oakerstead.

Last year, The Sunday Times revealed the list of the 50 dental practices receiving the highest fees in 2004 for routine NHS work. The practice in the West Midlands, with 22 principal dentists, was top.

Even the best-paid dentists complain the system in operation until this month was unfair with inadequate funding for equipment and running costs. Many dentists said it was the reason they scaled down their NHS work or only accepted private patients.

The government has introduced a new system, aimed at moving away from what has been called “drill and fill” piecework to funding a range of dental services to the community. Dentists are being offered a guaranteed annual income estimated at about £80,000 for working in the NHS.

Derek Watson, chief executive officer of the Dental Practitioners Association, has described the new contracts as a “shambles”. He has warned the scheme will hasten the drift of dentists into the private sector.

“Once a dentist moves into the private sector he or she will not come back,” he said. “Once they have gone that will be the end of NHS dentistry permanently for most people.”

The Department of Health was unable to say whether any NHS trusts were paying funds directly into an offshore account for services provided by the Marques brothers. A Treasury spokesman said all government departments were advised to make checks before paying money into offshore accounts.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The Times celebrates its 225th birthday
• Heath discussed IMF loan during 1974 crisis
• Britain’s loneliest café opens for business