Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSWoman jailed for falsely claiming £36,000 NHS student bursary
A woman has been jailed for pretending to be Dutch to get a university place and claim more than £36,000 in NHS student bursary payments.
Aisha Badamasi, who is really Nigerian, was sentenced for 12 months’ imprisonment for fraud at Harrow Crown Court.
Ms Badamasi pleaded guilty to charges of using a false instrument and five offences of false accounting after gaining a place on an adult nursing diploma at London South Bank University in 2004.
She falsely declared she was a Dutch national, and therefore an EU citizen, allowing her to wrongly claim she had a right to work in the UK.
In November 2004, she used photocopied pages from a Dutch passport to successfully apply for an NHS bursary. As a result she was able to falsely claim a total of £36,252.73 over four years.
The Borders and Immigration Agency confirmed Ms Badamasi was Nigerian national without leave to remain in the UK at the time she applied to LSBU and claimed her bursary.
She was finally granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in November 2007 but was arrested in October 2008 following an investigation by NHS Counter Fraud.
The investigation revealed she had been living with her partner but had declared on her bursary application she was a single parent with no partner.
Kevin Cane, London Operational Fraud Manager at NHS Counter Fraud, said: ‘Valuable NHS resources must not be lost to fraud, whether through bursaries or any other means. As we can see from today’s verdict, the court has also taken a dim view of this fraudster’s actions. We will continue to take action against anyone who believes they can steal money from the NHS.’
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Readers' comments (7)
Anonymous | 24-May-2009 4:11 pm
As a student currently in my third and final year on the adult diploma nursing course, i cannot believe how much this woman was able to get out of the system when many of us are struggling financially on a meagre bursary at the moment. Its about time fraudsters like her were jailed and im sure there are many out there who have not been picked up on yet?
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Anonymous | 26-May-2009 10:04 am
I know of at least one student on my nursing course who is falsely claiming that she is a single parent, and another one who falsely claims travel reimbursement even tho she gets free travel because her husband works for london underground. Makes me sick.....we're all struggling....
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Nursehunter | 1-Jun-2009 9:43 am
I don't know of any student nurses that are claiming to be anything such as an EU citizen or someone who is able to claim more bursary than others. Such as mothers.
Most of the people I study/work with have children, are all British citizens and live locally. It makes me angry knowing that someone can scam that much bursary out of the 4 years!
I live off £544 a month, with an overdraft of £1250 and I don't really want to be going into my overdraft just yet. I have to pay my rent, books, travel and food off my bursary and I can just about scrape enough to afford all of that. Her doing that show's that there is not many honest and genuine nurses around any more.
If she scam the bursary and pretend to be something else. Wonder what she would of been like if she was a registered nurse. Not worth thinking about to be honest.
Anyone would love that money, but I think everything should be equal apart from if you have children.
With the free reimbursement? It just makes me sick that everyone can get away with all this money, when me as a 19 year old is struggling as it is. Everyday is a struggle, but I'm determined I really am. I am claiming my travel to be reimbursed, but I have that right, where she doesn't and it's not her money to take.
Some people are just far too greedy.
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Anonymous | 6-Jun-2009 9:31 pm
I share your views about the disgraceful way some students defraud the student bursary scheme.
The NHS Counter Fraud Service, who investigated this case, will look into every case of suspected fraud by student nurses and fully investigate when appropriate. We aim to prosecute every student that we find to have made a fraudulents bursary claim.
Fraudulent claims can be based around many things but the most common relate to forged Immigration documents, passports and visas; false claims for childcare costs and/or dependants and students claiming to be single when they have a partner.
If anybody has a suspicion about a student nurse (or any fraud within the NHS) they can report it anonymously to the NHS Counter Fraud Service on 0800 028 40 60 and I or one of my colleagues will look into it.
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Anonymous | 19-Jun-2009 6:38 pm
Don't get me wrong, I'm as annoyed as everyone else that this woman was able to scam SO much out of the system, I mean why the h**l could she get that much when my own bursary is so pathetic?
But on another note, maybe if we were paid a half decent rate for our bursary that allowed us to live without scraping the barrel every month, people wouldn't have to defraud the system.
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Anonymous | 21-Jun-2009 8:54 pm
I am not trying to put down Africans as i am an African myself but when somebody applies for a course claiming to be EU or British and the person sounds like they just landed from Africa,you should know that they are probably not who they are claiming to be.There are so many students,i will say mostly Nigerians doing the Nursing Training and they all use false documents.I am a Nigerian though am a family of EEA National but i tell you the Universities need to get tougher and check every document well.for example on the interview day,there was this Ugandan lady with a British Passport but could barely speak English,the picture on the Passport show a lighter skinnned woman with prescripted Glasses,and this lady is so dark its impossible to miss that and also she didnt need to use Glasses not to see nor to fill out all the documents we were asked to fill.no one noticed these....they need to really look....
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Anonymous | 2-Oct-2009 12:13 pm
Mmmmmm......several stories in the nursing times of Student bursary fraud and all involving overseas african students.
Me thinks someone within the immigration service and someone within the NHS bursary service ain't doing their jobs properly!
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