A man who posed as a registered nurse, earning more than £170,000 from his fraudulent activity, has been jailed for more than three years.
Ashton Guramatunhu appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, where he was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
Guramatunhu, 46, of Middlepark Road, Dudley, had pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing.
The court heard how in late 2014, Guramatunhu registered with a nursing agency in Warrington using the identity of a registered nurse to gain employment.
He went on to work at six nursing homes in the northeast of England between 1 January 2015 and 5 April 2019, earning an estimated £172,921 through his fraudulent activity, Cheshire Police said.
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In January 2019, the nurse whose identity had been used by Guramatunhu was contacted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council concerning an incident, and his fitness to practice, at a care home he had never worked at.
The incident was reported to Cleveland Police, and an investigation was launched. The case was passed to Cheshire Police in 2020 after it was established that Guramatunhu was registered to an agency in Warrington.
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Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Naomi Sargent, who led the investigation, said: “Guramatunhu should never have been working as a nurse. While he had been to university, his previous convictions meant that he was not suitable to work in the care sector.
“He put the lives of innocent patients at risk, purely for his own financial gain, and I have no doubt that he would have continued his offending had he not been arrested.
“The sentence handed to him by the court reflects the severity of his actions, and I hope that it acts as a warning to others.”
