NHS worker Stacey Tipler embezzled nearly £650,000 from a cancer hospital . Pictured during her trial at Southwark Crown Court last summer . An NHS worker who conned a hospital out of more than half a million pounds earmarked for life-saving cancer drugs has been ordered to pay back just £28,737 . Stacey Tipler , 33 , used her job to steal £642,000 from the Royal Marsden NHS Trust which she spent on designer shopping sprees , mortgage payments and her planned wedding . But she and partner Scott Chaplin , 34 , who was the ringleader of the plot , were caught and both jailed last summer . At Southwark Crown Court today , Judge Anthony Leonard QC said Tipler had made £54,852 from the scheme . At the proceeds of crime hearing , he ordered her to repay £28,737.90 within six months or spend another 18 months in jail . She 's already serving four years . Chaplin claimed he 'made nothing ' from the scam but was ordered to repay £115,000 form the the £310,000 the judge said he made . Judge Leonard said : 'In my judgement it must have been the two people who received the majority of the proceeds of the fraud were this defendant and his Common Law wife Ms Tipler . ' For several months after December 2011 , she substituted account numbers of pharmaceutical firms who were due payment with the details of men recruited by her partner and the ringleader of the plot , 34-year-old Scott Chaplin . He was jailed for five-and-a-half years after being found guilty of the same offence and one count of conspiracy to money launder . Passing sentence in July last year , Judge Leonard said that while Chaplin from Carshalton in Surrey was the 'main instigator ' , Tipler was 'invaluable ' to the scam , which he said could have been 'catastrophic ' for the hospital 's patients . He told her : 'It could only have been you who could have come up with the sophisticated and ingenious methods to ensure that your fraud went undetected . ' I am satisfied that it was not you who had the idea to defraud the hospital . It is my judgment that on your own this fraud would not have been committed . 'That said , once the idea was there , the position of trust you held made you invaluable in achieving the fraud . 'The skill which you showed in trying to ensure the fraud would go undiscovered was very great and very dishonest . It was a very clever but dishonest fraud . ' The Judge accepted that the crime was hatched by Scott Chaplin , 34 , right , but said the position of trust Tipler held was invaluable in the fraud . Pictured outside Southwark Crown Court during trial last summer . Some of the money taken from the hospital was recovered but it was left £310,000 out of pocket . It was also ordered that part of the money Tipler is to pay back go towards compensating the hospital . The Royal Marsden is a prominent hospital for cancer care , with past patients including the reality TV star Jade Goody and the actress Susannah York . Later Chaplin , dressed in a short-sleeved blue and white striped shirt , stepped into the witness box and insisted he 'did n't make nothing ' from the hospital fraud . Judge Leonard said : 'The defendant maintains that he received nothing from the fraud that required his wife to act , as the jury found , to act fraudulently in her role as an accountant for the Royal Marsden Hospital . 'Tipler 's defence was that she acted under duress and that was rejected by the jury and indeed I reject it too . ' Royal Marsden Hospital , a specialist in cancer care . It 's one of the places that benefitted from cancer drugs that the funds Tipler stole were intended to pay for . The trust was left £310,000 out of pocket by the scam . He added that the couple must have seen the majority of the proceeds . Judge Leonard refused to accept his account and ordered him to repay £115,000 from the £310,857 he defrauded within six months or face two more years in jail . Money of varying amounts was passed to the accounts of Adrian Horan , 43 , Clinton Woollery , 36 , Thomas Quinlan , 27 , Russell Baker , 33 , and William Flynn , 38 . Woollery was ordered to repay just £3,062 despite netting £59,525 from the scam . He will face just six weeks in jail if he does not pay the money within four months . Fourth defendant Flynn will return to Southwark Crown Court at a later date for his hearing . Tipler and Chaplin were convicted of conspiracy to defraud and Horan pleaded guilty to the same charge . Horan , from Sutton ; Woollery , from Carshalton ; Baker , from Worcester Park ; Quinlan , from Banstead ; Harriott , from Sutton and William Flynn , from Wallington , Surrey ; admitted converting criminal property .
Stacey Tipler , 33 , and partner Scott Chaplin , 34 , are already in jail for thefts . Tipler stole money from Royal Marsden NHS Trust over several months . Cash she spent on designer handbags and wedding was for cancer drugs . Tipler was ordered to pay pay back just £28,737 within six months or spend another 18 months in prison . She is already serving four years . Comment: