A NURSE breached “fundamental tenets” of the profession when he used a fake passport to land a job at a Swindon mental health hospital.

Ibrahim Abdulkareem used the fake French document to obtain employment at Sandalwood Court, Stratton, making £60,000 in that time.

His true, Nigerian, passport was in the hands of the Home Office when he went for the job, and he did not have the right to work in the UK.

A misconduct hearing held earlier this year found that other members of the profession would find the now 31-year-old’s misconduct “deplorable”.

He was previously told to do community service in a criminal court having admitted fraud.

But he has now been struck off the nursing register after a misconduct hearing was held earlier this year.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found that his actions “breached fundamental tenets of trust, honesty and integrity, and therefore brought its reputation into disrepute”.

They added that a “fully informed member of the public would consider the actions that were taken by Mr Abdulkareem to be dishonest”.

The hearing heard that Abdulkareem, who lived in Haydon Wick at the time of his conviction, used the counterfeit passport to gain employment.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, who had employed him for over two years, had referred the case to the NMC in July 2019 with concerns of his identity.

An investigation by the immigration authorities identified the fraud.

In a reflective piece to the NMC, the nurse said that he knew what he was doing when using a counterfeit passport.

However, the insight he showed was said to be “extremely limited”, with “little consideration demonstrated into the impacts his actions would have on his colleagues, patients, the wider public and the reputation of the nursing profession”.

Concluding, the panel found the allegations proved and that Abdulkareem had breached the professional code, finding his actions “did fall seriously short of the… standards expected of a nurse” and amounted to misconduct.

The report on the panel’s findings reads: “Nurses occupy a position of privilege and trust in society and are expected at all times to be professional and act with honesty and integrity.

“Patients and their families must be able to trust nurses with their lives and the lives of their loved ones. They must make sure that their conduct at all times justifies both their patients’ and the public’s trust in the profession.”

They conceded that there was no evidence that patients were put at risk of harm – indeed Abdulkareem’s sentencing hearing at Swindon Crown Court in December 2020 heard that his bosses were content with his performance, and that he had obtained a first class degree from the University of West London.

But the panel said that his actions “breached fundamental tenets of trust, honesty and integrity”.

They said: “The panel considered Mr Abdulkareem’s premeditated, sophisticated and longstanding deception to be indicative of a serious attitudinal issue.”

The panel found his fitness to practice was impaired, and decided any punishment other than his striking off would be inappropriate.

It means that Abdulkareem’s name will be removed from the register, thus preventing him from working in the profession.

Appearing at Swindon Crown Court in 2020, Abdulkareem pleaded guilty to fraud.

It was heard his brother’s friend, a convicted forger, provided the fake passport to him.

Judge Peter Crabtree sentenced him to a 12-month community order, during which time he was required to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and abide by a three-month curfew. He was also ordered to pay £250 costs.