Luton men who sold fake Covid vaccination records sentenced

Waqas Hanif, 28, and Touqir Nasir, 31, were prosecuted following a joint investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and NHS England.

Hanif was arrested by NCA officers in January 2022, while Nasir attended a voluntary interview in March 2023.

Hanif was working as a vaccination programme care co-ordinator at Kingsway Health Centre in Luton when more than 2,000 fraudulent vaccination records were created between June and October 2021.

The NCA says unvaccinated people paid between £80 and £150 for two fake vaccine doses, which gave them official records they could use to obtain vaccine passports.

Investigators found a total of 2,663 suspicious entries linked to Kingsway Health Centre, with 1,875 connected to five IP addresses associated with Hanif’s home.

Hanif had administrator access to Pinnacle, the NHS system used to record vaccinations. When NCA officers arrested him at his home in January 2022, they found his NHS ID card, NHS documents and £7,000 in cash.

Investigators also seized £136,405 from a safe deposit box Hanif had rented in Luton.

His fingerprints were found on some of the banknotes, while around 250 images were recovered from his phone showing personal details, including names and addresses, of about 340 patients.

It is suspected that organised criminals recruited, or worked in partnership with, non-clinical staff to produce the fraudulent records.

Hanif admitted creating the fraudulent records but claimed he had been pressured by criminals.

The investigation also found Nasir had opened a bank account under the name Adam Parker – the name he had changed to by deed poll.

More than £56,000 was paid into the account, largely through deposits of between £100 and £400. Investigators suspected the money was payment for fraudulent vaccination records. Some of the people making deposits were found to have had false vaccine records created for them.

Bank statements also showed a £1,000 payment to Hanif, which he told investigators was payment for records created by Nasir.

Hanif pleaded guilty to offences under the Computer Misuse Act, Fraud Act and Proceeds of Crime Act at Luton Crown Court in March 2025.

Nasir pleaded guilty to a Fraud Act offence in December 2025 and later admitted a Proceeds of Crime Act offence.

At Luton Crown Court on Thursday, September 3, Hanif was sentenced to three years in prison.

Nasir was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for one year, and will be subject to a curfew for six months.

Deputy director Foster said: “These men cynically abused our healthcare system for financial gain, at a time when the country was going through the turmoil and pain of the Covid 19 pandemic.

“Although receiving the vaccine is a matter of personal choice, such exploitation of our healthcare system to allow unvaccinated individuals to bypass restrictions that are in place to protect the British public is illegal.

“Working closely with the NHS England Counter Fraud Team, this investigation has helped to secure the safety of our communities by preventing organised criminals from further undermining the national pandemic response and benefitting financially from the damaging service they provided.”