'Dead' Zimbabwean nurse escapes UK jail

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By Staff Reporter

A BRITISH judge has acknowledged a Zimbabwean nurse's "skill" in avoiding jail following a fraud conviction.

Pauline Muswere, 22, tricked Britain's National Health Service out of £5,625 and then tried to fake her own death.

Muswere was set to go on trial in February 2005 but just before the trial started, her solicitors were told that she had died during childbirth in NIGERIA.

She was subsequently found living in Middlesbrough.

After she pleaded guilty to eight counts of false accounting, perverting the course of justice and failure to surrender at the Reading Crown Court last week, a judge told Muswere -- who is pregnant with twins -- she deserved jail but that her motherhood and pregnancy had dissuaded him from this course.

Judge Christopher Compston said: "She avoided facing the music with some skill."

The judge imposed a one-year community punishment order, instructing Muswere to carry out 40 hours unpaid work.

The Reading Crown Court heard that Muswere was paid the money by Slough NHS Trust after she submitted work sheets for shifts she had not done at Upton Hospital between April and June 2003.

After her initial arrest in September 2003, Muswere pleaded guilty to eight counts of false accounting but later retracted the admissions.

She maintained a cousin had falsely claimed the wages and had then appeared in court pretending to be her to enter guilty pleas.

However, it was later proved through finger-printing and witnesses that it was indeed Muswere who had committed the fraud.

A further charge of perverting the course of justice was added to the indictment and the trial was set for February 2005.

But before it started, Muswere's solicitors were told she had died in childbirth in Nigeria. A court hearing was shown her death certificate, which turned out to be a forgery.

It emerged she had married a Nigerian man, Charles Enagbonma, in Middlesbrough in 2004.

Following her second arrest, Muswere pleaded guilty to eight counts of false accounting, perverting the course of justice and failure to surrender.

She is now living in Bolton and is pregnant with twins. She also has another child.
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