Mental Health Nurse Convicted Of Fraud Is Struck Off, UK

Main Category: Medical Malpractice / Litigation
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 28 Mar 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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A mental health nurse convicted of obtaining property by deception and false accounting was struck off the NMC's Register at a hearing in London on Tuesday March 3rd 2008.

Oladele Awomolo, 42, admitted that his fitness to practice was impaired because of his convictions but argued for leniency from the NMC's Conduct and Competence Committee which heard the case.

Mr Awomolo pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining property by deception and four counts of false accounting in March 2005 at Luton Crown Court. He was sentenced to a community punishment order for 120 hours on each count to run concurrently and ordered to pay compensation of £10819.90 to the Inland Revenue and £1000 in costs.

The judge described Mr Awomolo's actions which took place over a three year period while he was training to be a nurse, as 'deliberate and sophisticated' and said he avoided prison 'by the skin of his teeth'.

Mr Awomolo was also convicted of using a certificate of insurance with intent to deceive in December 2006 and ordered to pay £500 and £455 in costs.

In deciding to remove Mr Awomolo from the Register, the committee panel did consider more lenient sanctions like a caution order, suspension or taking no action at all.

But it was decided that his convictions represented too serious a departure from the standards set out in the NMC's Code of Professional Conduct.

NMC spokesperson, Colin Joseph, said: "Such dishonesty over such a prolonged period is incompatible with registration. Confidence in the NMC would be undermined if he remained on the Register."

Notes

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 674,899. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.

The independent panel is selected from a pool of individuals appointed by the Appointments Board. They come from a variety of backgrounds and are not NMC Council members, nor do they sit on any committee of the Council.

Nursing and Midwifery Council