It may not be perfect, but the National Health Service is still something of which this country can be rightly proud.

It does not, however, come cheap.

The service could always do with more money – whoever is in government – and every penny it does get could probably be spent twice over, as most of us realise.

So when someone decides to steal from it, they must know that they are taking vital funds – especially if they actually work for the NHS.

Yet that did not stop dentist Daljut Jabbal from trying to swindle it out of £85,000 for treatment he did not carry out.

There is little doubt that he was struggling with a range of problems when he gave in to temptation – though that is no excuse.

It is also clear that he is deeply ashamed of his actions, having apparently blown the whistle on himself and paid back the money.

But as we have stated, all of us can be proud of the NHS, and that is partly because of the standards we expect from those who work in it and which they uphold.

Jabbal knows he has fallen short of these standards, betraying his profession and the trust put in him by the public. That weakness has cost him his reputation, his career and his liberty.

The outcome of this case could not have been different and he deserves his fate – but the judge, Recorder Sandra Keen, is still nonetheless right to describe it as tragic.