A nurse accused of faking her CV to get a senior job on a neonatal ward “placed the most vulnerable of patients at risk”, a court has been told.
Tanya Nasir is accused of fabricating qualifications and jobs on her CV, allowing her to get a job as a Band 7 Ward Manager on the Neonatal ward at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, where she worked for 5 months starting in September 2019.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that she was suspended from her role after “inconsistencies” were spotted in her CV which led to an NHS counter fraud investigation.
Ms Nasir was suspended in February 2020 and later resigned from her job in November 2021.
Opening the case, prosecuting barrister Emma Harris told the jury that Tanya Nasir had claimed in her job application to have worked as a nurse since 2004. In reality, Ms Harris said, the defendant had not registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council until February 2014.
Ms Nasir also claimed to have worked at the West Herts Hospitals Trust, as a Band 5 ICU nurse, and at the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, as a neonatal sister – jobs which, the prosecution say, she had never held.
The court heard Ms Nasir had faked qualifications, including degrees in physics from Hatfield Polytechnic (now the University of Hertfordshire) and a BSc in Operating Department Management from the University of West London, while her registration document with the Health and Care Professions Council, which she needed to become a ward manager, was also false.
The jury was told that Ms Nasir had also falsely claimed to have served in a number of roles with the army, including as a Platoon Commander and Combat Medical Officer with the the Royal Medical Corps, in the rank of Major.
In reality, the court heard, she had failed the basic fitness test for the army reserve in 2010, and had spent three years with the Cadet Force before being discharged and struck off in 2016 at the rank of Sergeant Instructor.
The defendant had never seen active service or been deployed overseas, as she claimed. A further claim that she had obtained a PGCE from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, allowing Ms Nasir to become a Qualified Army Teaching Instructor, was also false.
The court was told an e-mail address for Matthew Nash-Yearwood – a major in the cadet force who was given as a referee on Ms Nasir’s CV – was false and in reality an account operated by Ms Nasir.
Tanya Nasir was arrested in April 2021 by Dyfed Powys Police on suspicion of fraud. The court heard she told police that all the information she provided on her CV was “accurate, correct and truthful.”
But addressing the jury, Ms Harris said Ms Nasir’s actions had “placed at risk the trust which the public can have in those employed in the nursing profession.”
She explained that the role of Band 7 Ward Manager was “a role which requires substantial clinical, strategic and managerial experience in caring for newborn babies.”
“The level of risk which Ms Nasir’s lies carried was tremendous.”
“You will have to determine whether Tanya Nasir has deliberately and intentionally provided false information when applying for nursing roles and whether she has created or possessed documents which she intended to use to support those falsehoods.
“The prosecution say that the evidence which you will hear during the course of this trial will make sure you are sure of her guilt.”
Tanya Nasir, who is 45 and from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, denies 9 charges including fraud by false misrepresentation.
The trial is expected to last for a month.
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