text: 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 'didn'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.
target: 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 .
  Chaplin claimed he 'made nothing' but was ordered to repay £115,000 .