HUSBAND-and-wife dentists have been found guilty of defrauding the NHS.

Peter Wedge, 42, who ran the Castle Street Surgery, Banbury, was found guilty by jurors at Oxford Crown Court yesterday of one count of fraud.

His wife Ruth, 43, who is suffering from depression, was declared unfit to stand trial, but was found by the jury to have committed an act of fraud.

The court said it was not a conviction, but a ruling.

The pair, who employed three dentists and had a £500,000-a-year contract with Cherwell Vale Primary Care Trust to treat patients on the NHS, submitted false claims for work they had not completed between January and April 2007.

Mrs Wedges was given a two-year supervision order. Mr Wedges was bailed to be sentenced next month.