Cheating nurse is struck off

A CHADDERTON ward manager has been struck off after she pretended to be a patient to get free prescriptions and landed her job with false references.

Sonya Davenport (39) worked for the prison service before being offered a job on the F1 gynaecological ward at the Royal Oldham Hospital in 2006.

When she was suspended from HMP Forest Bank in Salford for issues about timesheets, she got a friend to fake a reference so she could get a new job, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

Davenport, of Fold Green, was exposed when counter-fraud specialist Karen Murray ran checks on her file and discovered the referee she had put down had never worked for the prison service or as a nurse.

In interview, Davenport admitted getting a friend to write a reference as she did not think she would get a favourable one from the prison service.

She admitted two charges of obtaining money by deception for faking the reference and obtaining free prescriptions by pretending she was a patient and was sentenced to 160 hours of unpaid work and told to pay costs of £500 at Bolton Crown Court in January, 2008.

Davenport was found to have misled doctors into signing prescriptions to get extra asthma inhalers before faking the reference. She also altered timesheets so she could claim overtime to which she was not entitled.

And on at least one occasion she forged her manager’s signature on a timesheet so she could get paid.

Davenport admitted three counts of obtaining prescriptions which stated she was a patient at the hospital when she was not and instructing a staff member to tell the pharmacy she was a patient.

She denied submitting seven inaccurate and invalid claims for payment to the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, between February and April, 2006.

She was found guilty of eight counts of dishonesty.

NMC chair Rachel O’Connell said: “The registrant channelled money and medication which should have been used for patients. This potentially compromised patient care.

“This was not an isolated incident. It was repeated dishonesty over a period of about a year and she was prepared to commit further offences after submitting a false reference.

“This deliberate dishonesty is a serious departure from the NMC’s code of conduct from a person who was trusted to be a ward manager.

“Confidence in the council would be eroded if a striking-off order was not imposed.”