A Glasgow nurse has been suspended from practising after pocketing over £1,500 in wages for shifts she didn't work.
Emma Lavelle was convicted of a fraudulent scheme in the scam involving bank shifts at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Healthcare workers take on temporary shifts at trust hospitals from the 'bank'. It helps provide cover when wards are hit with issues like staff illness or increased patient demand.
In July 2018, Miss Lavelle's line manager found her Bank budget was overspent for the month. Suspicions arose that Miss Lavelle, a registered band five nurse, and 'Colleague A' were 'booking and authorising shifts for one another'.
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An audit found that both workers retrospectively added 18 Bank shifts between January 18, 2018 and July 31, 2018, sparking an investigation.
Miss Lavelle then admitted she had fraudulently claimed for shifts she had not worked. She also admitted using Colleague A’s bank log in details to fraudulently sign-off the shifts, while maintaining she had worked some of them.
Lavelle and Colleague A were referred to the Procurator Fiscal. In April 2019, both were charged with the fraudulent scheme.
A statement from the Nursing and Midwifery Council Fitness to Practise Committee hearing read that on July 16, 2020 Lavelle pleaded guilty to 'forming a fraudulent scheme to obtain money from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde between January 6, 2018 and August 17, 2018, both dates inclusive'. That money was obtained 'in wages for work' they had 'not been authorised to do and did not do in pursuance of said scheme'.
The pair 'did book shifts for each other and 'made and submitted claims for payments of shifts' they 'had not worked. They also 'authorised payment of these shifts for each other and did obtain £3,096.40 by fraud'.
David Claydon was one of two Nursing and Midwifery Council representatives at the virtual hearing which took place over July 7 and 8. He slammed Miss Lavelle as 'dishonest' after 'exploiting a weakness in the NHS system' through a 'premeditated, deception for financial gain'.
Mr Claydon said: "Over a sustained period of time you made dishonest claims for shifts that were not worked and that you exploited a weakness in the NHS system. A member of the public should, quite rightly, expect nurses to maintain impeachable integrity and probity and if they were appraised of your behaviour, it may well damage the reputation of, and undermine trust and confidence in the nursing profession.
"You had engaged in a premeditated, systematic and long-standing deception over a period of approximately six months on the NHS to obtain a significant sum of money for personal financial gain.
Miss Lavelle was represented by Christie Wishart.
Ms Wishart said: "This was a desperate act done by a woman in a desperate situation".
On October 22, 2020, Miss Lavelle's guilty plea was amended to reflect the deletion of the amount of £3,096.40 in the charge, with an amended amount of £1504.88. Miss Lavelle was sentenced to a restriction of liberty order around one month later and ordered to pay £752.44 compensation to the health board.
Following the July 2022 hearing, Miss Lavelle was handed a 12 month suspension with review and an 18-month interim order suspension order.
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