An Edinburgh midwife has been suspended for nine months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after forging qualifications with a dead man's signature to take a top job at a hospital.
Mary Clarke was found to have inaccurately declared that she was awarded a Master of Science Degree from Edinburgh Napier University and used it to apply to jobs on several occasions.
The certificate was from Edinburgh Napier University dated July 13, 2007 and signed by the university Chancellor who had been dead since 2003.
Clarke had been working as a senior charge midwife at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth Hospital since 2015 when Napier University notified the NMC of the fraud in 2019.
She continued to work there throughout the investigation and following a hearing that took place between November 7 - 8 and November 9 -11 was found to be impaired.
The fraudulent behaviour was only flagged when Clarke applied for a top overseas position as Assistant Director of Nursing at Maternal & Child at King Fahad Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
The university had been asked to verify in support of the job application for the Assistant Director of Nursing post and had no record of Mary Clarke receiving a masters degree.
They also found the formatting of the text and characters printed on the copy of the masters degree certificate was different to that of ENU formatting used for printing their degree certificates.
Another factor that flagged the certificate was the copy of the masters degree certificate contained the signature of the ENU Chancellor who had been deceased for a period of some four years prior to the date of the certificate purported to be issued in 2007.
Following the investigation, the midwife has now been suspended for nine months followed by a review and an interim suspension order for another 18 months.
The midwife was found to be dishonest and used the false certificate to apply for jobs which would lead to financial gain.
Charges included: inaccurately declaring that she was awarded a Master of Science Degree from Edinburgh Napier University and using it in a job application for the role of Assistant Director of Nursing dated 25 February 2019.
She wrote on a CV that she had obtained the qualification and in support of the application referred to above, produced a fake certificate purportedly from Edinburgh Napier University dated 13 July 2007.
The third charge found her conduct throughout the charges to be dishonest in that she knew she had not been awarded the qualification referred to and intended to create the misleading impression that she had been awarded the qualification.
Members of the panel concluded: "The panel has found that your misconduct was serious. Clarke used deliberately used a false and inaccurate masters degree certificate when applying for an Assistant Director of Nursing role in an overseas healthcare setting.
"The panel considers that she was motivated by financial gain and that this was a premeditated act."
They also added: "Although she did not benefit financially from her dishonesty, having withdrawn her application on the 26 after the discovery of the masters degree certificate being false.
"The panel found that the dishonesty was directly related to her professional career as a midwife. However, it did consider that this was a ‘one-off episode’ in the context of a long and unblemished career as a midwife."
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been approached for comment.
READ MORE:
Duke of Edinburgh title could be denied to Prince Edward by King Charles
Elegant Edinburgh £1.7m mansion hits the market with Pentlands views and water feature
Popular Edinburgh Indian street food pop-up takes over kitchen of city centre bar
East Lothian police race to 'concern for person' call as man rushed to hospital
West Lothian couple that fell in love at supermarket have £10K wedding paid for
