Fuyane v Nursing and Midwifery Council
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | HHJ Langan QC |
| Judgment Date | 18 October 2012 |
| Neutral Citation | [2012] EWHC 3229 (Admin) |
| Docket Number | Case No: CO/7181/2012 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 18 October 2012 |
[2012] EWHC 3229 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Sitting at:
Leeds Combined Court
1 Oxford Row
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS1 3BG
His Honour Judge Langan QC
Case No: CO/7181/2012
The Appellant appeared in person.
Mr Pretty (instructed by the NMC) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.
This is a statutory appeal against a decision of the Conduct and Competence Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council ('the NMC'). The decision was made on 31 May 2012 and was to the effect that the appellant should be struck off the Register. The appellant admitted the charges for which she appeared before the panel, and accordingly the appeal is limited to the question of penalty.
The story is by any standards an unusual one. The background facts are set out in the appellant's Grounds of Appeal and are not, I think, in any way controversial. The appellant is a national of Zimbabwe who was born on 6 February 1978. She is a qualified lawyer who, before she came to this country, worked for a private law firm in Zimbabwe. She left Zimbabwe in September 2002 and has been in this country for in excess of 10 years. She left behind in her home country her two-year old daughter, her parents and her siblings, and she has not seen any of them since 2002. In due course the appellant applied for asylum in the United Kingdom. Her application for asylum was refused and thereafter she became appeal rights exhausted. Her case is currently being considered under the successor to the 'Legacy' scheme. She has never been in receipt of benefits; nor, leaving aside the matters to which I will refer in a few moments and which gave rise to the disciplinary proceedings, has she had any other assistance from the state.
The appellant obtained fraudulent documents by which, in 2006, she obtained a place on a three-year nursing diploma course at the University of Worcester. She completed that course in August 2009. She then registered with the NMC and obtained employment as a registered mental health nurse at a nursing home in Birmingham. The financial effect of applying on false papers for the course to which I have referred was twofold: (1) the National Health Service paid, on behalf of the appellant, academic fees to the University of Worcester; and (2) the appellant herself received a bursary by which she could support herself, in part at least, during her studies.
At the beginning of the appellant's course, on 4 October 2006, whilst she was attempting to open a bank account for the purpose of receiving her bursary monies, the falsity of the credentials which she presented to the bank was recognised. The matter was reported to the police and the appellant received a caution. At this stage the fact of her wrongdoing was no more widely disseminated, but it was again discovered four years later, at the end of 2010. The appellant was then charged with offences for which she appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on 30 March 2011. Before that appearance, the matter had come to the notice of the NMC, which on 16 February 2011 made the appellant subject to an interim suspension order for a period of 18 months.
One can see from the transcript of the proceedings in the Crown Court that the appellant was charged with two offences of dishonesty: one related to the funding for her course for which the National Health Service had paid just under £21,000; the other related to the bursary for which the appellant had received, in round terms, £20,500. The appellant pleaded guilty to both charges.
The matter was very carefully considered by His Honour Judge Orme. The judge took the view that, although the offences were very serious and the sums involved were substantial, there was considerable personal mitigation, including the appellant's immediate admission of the offences when they were put to her. The judge felt able to deal with the matter by imposing a short suspended...
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R Osammor v Nursing & Midwifery Council
...would undermine public confidence in the profession and in the NMC as a regulatory body. The panel had regard to the case of Fuyane v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2012] EWHC 3229 (Admin) (18 October 2012). It noted that in this case the registrant demonstrated real remorse and regret for ......