Nigerian student jailed after using fake ID to work in UK hospitals

A Nigerian studentm Oluwabunmu Adeleiyi has been jailed after defrauding the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) by working as a healthcare support worker using a false identity, a court has heard.

Adeleiyi living in Canton, Cardiff, was in the UK on a student visa when she worked at Neath Port Talbot Hospital and the Caswell Clinic in Bridgend.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Adeleiyi and two accomplices used the same identification documents to bill the NHS about £16,000 a month through different employment agencies.

Adeleiyi pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation and was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment for each offence, to run concurrently and suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid community service.

Two of the fraud counts related to work carried out at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, while the remaining two involved the Caswell Clinic, a medium secure mental health unit in Bridgend.

The court was told the fraud was uncovered when Adeleiyi signed out at the end of a night shift at the Caswell Clinic.

A receptionist noticed that a passport photograph had been placed on an ID card kept in a plastic wallet. When challenged, Adeleiyi refused to hand over her shift documentation.

The matter was escalated to senior management at Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB), which declared a critical incident.

An internal investigation found that staff had raised concerns about Adeleiyi’s “bizarre” behaviour during shifts, including locking herself alone in a ward room.

She was also found to have locked corridor doors that were not permitted to be locked, posing potential risks during fires or incidents involving violent patients

Despite having no training in restraint techniques, Adeleiyi had access to confidential patient records and made entries in observation notes herself.

Health officials told the court the risks involved “could have been catastrophic”.

The court also heard that Adeleiyi had used the ID of a registered healthcare support worker who had fled the UK to Nigeria using a false passport.

Passing sentence, Judge Recorder Mark Powell KC told her: “You put the patients at risk… you put staff at risk,” as quoted by the BBC.

Speaking after the hearing, Neil Jones, lead counter fraud specialist for SBUHB, said: “Today’s sentence serves to illustrate that any fraud perpetrated against the NHS, especially where individuals target vulnerable patients or staff will be investigated fully and dealt with through the judicial system.”

He added that Adeleiyi had used fraudulent nursing agency identification supplied by an overseas organised crime group. “Thankfully, she had minimal interaction with patients and a review carried out by the health board determined that no harm was caused to any patients,” Jones said.

Culled from vanguard