The jury in the trial of a senior surgeon charged with fraud, forgery, and sending a malicious letter about a colleague has retired to consider its verdict.

The men and women, now in their fourth week of the trial after a seven-day break, have been asked whether several offences they've heard about were just “unfortunate coincidences or lies”.

Mohammed Suhaib Sait, 61, is accused of inflating claims to insurers, dishonestly presenting forged letters to his employer, and sending a malicious letter to a patient which falsely accused a colleague of sexual assault and malpractice while he was working at Fawkham Manor in Longfield.

It has been claimed the orthopaedic consultant, who was also working at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, changed codes for a routine knee operation to a more expensive repair, despite not completing this.

It’s alleged he did this on purpose and insurers AXA, Aviva, and Bupa were charged thousands of pounds extra.

The court was previously told how Bupa discovered the wrong codes during an audit and contacted Sait – of Chislehurst Road in Chislehurst – who agreed to pay back more than £12,000 in owed money.

Prosecutor Serena Gates addressed the jury during her closing statement and asked them to consider whether the evidence they had heard was a coincidence or if Sait was lying.

She said: “He’s lying to you when he said he didn’t show false letters to [BMI Healthcare executive director] Valerie Power and [regional director] Peter Harris in December 2015.

“He’s lying to you when he says he didn’t write a poisoned pen letter to one of his colleague’s patients.

“Don’t underestimate what people will do to save their own skin, whether it be their personal or professional life.”

Ms Gates asked whether it was a coincidence or a lie Sait claimed he had spoken to someone at Bupa who cleared his coding practice, but there was no record of any communication between him and the insurer. Sait claimed he spoke to an employee named Sam but the insurers found no record of someone with that name.

The prosecutor continued: “Is it a coincidence AXA, nor Aviva, can find any correspondence saying they’re happy with his coding procedures?

“Is it a coincidence the codes change from less expensive ones to more expensive ones? Is it a coincidence that Valerie Power and Peter Harris were apparently mistaken in seeing falsified letters? Is it a coincidence Sait’s DNA was found on the malicious letter?”

She went on to say that despite information from Sait that the money earned from changing the codes was only a small percentage of his yearly earnings, “wealthy people get greedy too”.

Ms Gates pointed to evidence from the father-of-four earlier in the trial where he said he had felt financial pressures before and would sometimes have to save by not going away on holiday or getting takeaways.

David Whittaker, defending, said there were simple and innocent explanations for many of these allegations.

The court previously heard how Sait's DNA was found on a letter sent to a patient which falsely claimed one of the surgeon’s colleagues had sexually assaulted her.

Forensic scientist Michael Scarborough’s statement about the letter revealed he didn’t know around a month before the anonymous letter was sent that the patient had received a letter from Sait asking them to forward it on to their GP.

Mr Whittaker questioned expert forensic witness Mr Scarborough whether handling this letter could have led to Sait’s DNA being found a month later.

Mr Scarborough said: “If this is the case and if the letter was received from Sait and had been handled by him, then there is a realistic opportunity of secondary transfer of DNA.

“DNA on the letter could be explained by indirect rather than direct transfer of DNA.”

Earlier in the trial – which is taking place at the Nightingale Court at the Mercure Great Danes Hotel in Maidstone – Sait gave evidence and explained how an investigation into his conduct left him feeling “hounded, bullied, and anxious”.

The defendant denies five charges relating to his time at Fawkham Manor Hospital in Longfield between 2011 and 2016.