Dishonest Leeds nurse convicted of fraud after pocketing almost £9k for hospital shifts she didn't work

Sophia Kudzai Chifamba left hospitals understaffed with her “premeditated” and “systematic” course of conduct, submitting at least 50 fraudulent timesheets between July 2018 and September 2019 while she was a trainee nurse.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct hearing on August 7-8 was told that Chifamba was “drowning in debt” while at university. A report of the hearing explains that she had initially started her nursing training at the University of Leeds, before she was excluded in 2017 after being accused of academic malpractice - including plagiarism.

Chifamba did not appeal the decision, but instead signed on to a master course at the University of Huddersfield, which she completed in 2020. Initially, she was funding her studies through a NHS bursary, which she lost after her exclusion from the University of Leeds.

Chifamba took out an overdraft, four payday loans and borrowed from family and friends to fund her master’s degree. She told the NMC hearing that she was “drowning in debt” and had bailiffs come to her home on a regular basis.

She claimed she went without electricity for weeks at a time, but later clarified the longest she had been without power was 10 days. Chifamba said she would buy candles to light the house and only eat at work, and she felt like she was “really struggling” and burnt out.

While working shifts as a trainee nurse, she said that on some days, she would complete a long day shift and go straight into a night shift, without a shower. And between July 2018 and September 2019, Chifamba pocketed £8,814.49 for agency shifts at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust that she did not turn up to.

Following a police investigation, Chifamba admitted a charge of fraud at Leeds Magistrates Court on June 16, 2022, and was later sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay a £1,000 fine. She made a self-referral to the NMC.

Representing the NMC at the Fitness to Practise hearing, Brittany Buckell said Chifamba had demonstrated a “pattern of dishonesty” and that the conduct leading up to her conviction was “not isolated.”

In mitigation, Vishal Misra said the nurse had not repeated her behaviour over the last four years, and would now act differently if she found herself in a similar situation.

The panel concluded that Chifamba’s fitness to practise as a nurse was impaired, and that her course of conduct was “premeditated, systematic and over a prolonged period of time”. While the panel accepted that she was experiencing difficult family circumstances at the time she carried out the fraud, they found she had shown “limited remorse and insight”.

Chifamba will be struck off from the nurses register, which will prevent her from working as a nurse, unless she appeals the decision within 28 days. In the event of the appeal process being activated, she will remain suspended for 18 months.

The report said: “Having regard to the effect of your actions in bringing the profession into disrepute by adversely affecting the public’s view of how a registered nurse should conduct herself, the panel has concluded that nothing short of this would be sufficient in this case.”