A recruitment consultant created false references for doctors seeking employment in Sussex hospitals.

Ross Etherson pleaded guilty to 21 counts of making or supplying articles for use in fraud.

Isleworth Crown Court heard that Etherson, 34, altered the CVs of eight foreign doctors to attempt to secure them locum jobs at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.

Etherson, of Chestnut Grove, Balham, south London, worked for Midas Medical Recruitment from May 2009 to April 16 2010, when he was arrested.

David Williams, prosecuting, said Etherson defrauded the NHS out of £37,186, which amounted to "the costs paid by trusts to hire doctors whose CVs had been changed".

The court heard that Etherson perpetrated the fraud at "the behest and encouragement" of the company where he worked.

Jocelyn Ledward, mitigating, said that "had it not been for the conduct of others, this man would not have behaved as he did".

She said he was drawn into a "culture of deceit" when he took a job at Midas, and there was an attitude of "see no evil, hear no evil" as employees competed for commission, regularly adding details of work in the UK and qualifications that did not exist to CVs.

Doctors involved never knew that their CVs and references were being changed by the recruitment company.

The court heard that in the almost five years between being arrested and the case coming to court, Etherson had suffered self-esteem problems and had been on the brink of depression.

Judge Robin Johnson described it as a "a shocking delay".

He will be sentenced tomorrow