A registered adult nurse convicted of theft, false accounting and obtaining money by deception was struck off at a hearing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in London on February 28th 2008.

Susan Elizabeth Gordon, 45, had been found guilty of obtaining a money transfer by deception, false accounting, two counts of theft and trying to remove criminal property in January last year at Luton Crown Court. She has been sentenced to three years and two months in prison.

The independent panel of the NMC's Conduct and Competence Committee accepted the evidence of the conviction put before it and decided that Ms Gordon's fitness to practise was impaired.

Ms Gordon has shown no sign of insight, regret or remorse despite having failed to act in a way expected of her within the NMC's Code of Professional Conduct and because of the seriousness of the charges has been struck off.

Commenting on the panel's decision to have Ms Gordon struck off, NMC spokesman, Colin Joseph, said: "These charges involved a number of allegations of dishonest behaviour by the registrant. Her behaviour has brought the reputation of the profession into disrepute and is fundamentally incompatible with being a registered nurse.

"The only appropriate sanction was to strike her off the register."

Notes

- The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Currently the number of registrants exceeds 686,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001 (The Order), sets out the NMC's role and responsibilities.

- The independent panel is selected from a pool of individuals appointed by the Appointments Board. They come from a variety of backgrounds and are not NMC Council members, nor do they sit on any committee of the Council.3.

Nursing and Midwifery Council