Zim nurse jailed for passport fraud in UK

• Ex-Zim cop run over by bus in Nottingham

• 'Mugabe's ex-pilot' jailed over UK idetinty fraud

• Girl, 4, killed by falling TV

• Conman who blew £50,000 on designer suits jailed

• SA man charged over nurse in boot

• Zim Catholic priest in UK mystery death

• Ex-cop jailed for knife attack on wife in Leeds

• Man jailed for 3 years for under age sex with teens

• Insurance fraudsters jailed for 5 years

• Laughing Zim teenage killer facing life in UK jail

• Jail for thug who beat pregnant wife with belt

• Jail for woman caught with hands in the till

• Diplomat's son jailed over knife killing

• Zimbabwean jailed over Hampshire robbery

• 8 years in UK jail for teen gang member

• Nurse strangler gets life sentence

• Strangled nurse had HIV, court told

• Suspect in Ella murder admits violent struggle

• 'She doesn't take me to heaven anymore' - what murder suspect told pal

• UK police raids net 14 suspects in £7m fraud

• HIV+ asylum seeker jailed for biting cop

Posted to the web: 19/05/2009 15:13:21
A ZIMBABWEAN nurse who used a falsified passport to get a job working with substance misusers at Chelmsford Prison in Essex, England, has been jailed for a year.

Definate Tendayi Mukwe was employed by the National Health Service (NHS) and worked with substance misusers at the institution which holds young offenders.

Mukwe's last leave to remain in the UK expired in February 2003 and she was refused an extension.

A year later, she began training to become a registered nurse. She applied for an NHS student bursary to take a nursing diploma at Thames Valley University, which was awarded on the basis of settled status in the UK, which she claimed using a falsely endorsed passport.

Mukwe, registered as a nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, was arrested at her workplace on December 4, 2008 - six months into her job.

She had used the same altered Zimbabwean passport, containing a false indefinite leave to remain endorsement, to prove her entitlement to work.

Mukwe initially pleaded not guilty to all charges but, at her trial on May 13 this month, she pleaded guilty to possessing the falsified passport with intent, obtaining a bursary by deception and overstaying – with the fraud charge relating to her prison employment to lie on file.

She was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment in total - six months for the passport offence and six months for obtaining the bursary (to be served consecutively) and 21 days for overstaying (to be served concurrently).

Addressing Mukwe, Judge Gratwicke said that the NHS bursary she obtained of £20,636.00 “is money you are not entitled to – it is not your money”.

Frank Ginnelly, Operational Fraud Manager Eastern, NHS Counter Fraud, said: “It is not acceptable to abuse NHS Student Bursaries in this way. This outcome shows the public that NHS Counter Fraud is vigorous in protecting their precious health resources.”
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com