Neneh Fofanah was struck off in September 2022 following her conviction for fraud.

The facts of the criminal case are remarkable: Fofanah told her employer that she was not fit to work and claimed sick-pay and pay for compassionate leave during the period from July 2014 until October 2015. She was employed by the Cheshire and Wirral Hospital Trust, funded by the National Health Service.

Yet, while "off sick" and receiving pay from that Trust, she was in fact working - and being paid - at a hospital in Derby.

Her defences include " that the conviction was a miscarriage of justice and that she was not guilty of fraud. In essence, her position is that she was not dishonest; that she acted with the knowledge of her employer; and that false allegations are made against her. By way of background her contention was that she was genuinely unfit for the Cheshire and Wirral work but that the work for Derby was of a different nature and/or therapeutic."

The Judge in the striking off case was meticulous in his review of the facts and law and very clear in his judgment.

Fofanah had been properly convicted and her defence is spurious and the Council was justified in striking her off. Of course, he was a little more circumspect in his choice of words: " the panel was entitled, and indeed bound, to proceed on the
footing of the dishonesty as shown by the conviction. In those circumstances it was
entitled to come to the conclusion that there was impairment of the Appellant's fitness
to practise. I go as far as to say any other conclusion would have been bordering on the
perverse. "

Why is it interesting to us? It's because the case demonstrates the lengths that a fraudster will go to manufacture a defence, and maintain it in the face of reason, and to try to avoid the consequences of the conduct.

Given that the criminal court, despite the seriousness of the offence, handed down a suspended sentence for the offence of defrauding an employer and, indirectly, the taxpayer it is perhaps surprising that she didn't quietly accept her good fortune.

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Fofaneh-v.-Nursing-…