Brenda Duncan, 49, of Curzon Crescent, Willesden, north London, managed Oak Lodge Medical Centre in Burnt Oak, Edgware, for 10 years.

Wood Green Crown Court in north London heard that between April 2007 and November 2009 she paid herself an extra £108,615.17 in salary plus £159,244.40 in overtime that she was not entitled to.

Duncan was convicted of six offences of fraud by abuse of position on Friday. Duncan earned £38,000 in April 2004. By October 2009 her basic annual salary was nearly £100,000, on a par with a director responsible for a hospital department.

During 2007/8 Duncan claimed 220 hours per month in overtime alone, when she was contracted to work 156 hours per month with no overtime. She even claimed overtime while on a fortnight’s holiday.

The extent of her fraud was identified in February 2010 by two GPs at the practice.

Mick Hayes, anti-fraud lead at NHS Protect, said: ‘Brenda Duncan abused the trust placed in her by busy, hardworking GPs to massively inflate her income at their expense. At trial, her attitude appeared to be that she was worth it but the reality is she drained the surgery of money and her greed threatened the quality of patient care.’