A Zimbabwean nurse has been struck off the register after creating a fake Cambridge University certificate.

Chenesai Kutsirayi sent a certificate to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on February 16 last year which was said to be from the Ministry of Education in Zimbabwe in collaboration with Cambridge University in relation to the results of a number of General Certificate of Education examinations.

She even tried to back up her certificate with a fake letter of recommendation from her former headmistress saying she attended evening classes, a NMC council hearing heard.

But giving evidence by telephone from Zimbabwe, the current headmistress of Girls High School, in Harare, said she “was not the author of the letter, nor did it come from any of her staff, and that the signature at the bottom of the letter was not hers.”

She said in her time as headmistress “there had never been an evening school, nor was she aware of the past existence of one”.

A representative from Cambridge International Examinations also suggested the certificate is not genuine, the panel heard.

The process development leader said there were a number of specific aspects of Mrs Kutsirayi’s certificate “which were not in compliance with the standard format of certificates produced by the University of Cambridge”.

He said there were “various discrepancies in the spacing of the entries on the questioned certificate”, the panel heard.

Other inconsistencies included a centre number which did not exist, her name did not match the centre records and part of the school’s name was missing.

The witness confirmed “his absolute certainty that Mrs Kutsirayi could not have achieved those results with the University of Cambridge”.

Mrs Kutsirayi, who did not attend the hearing but said in her written statement that her late sister sent the certificate to her by post and she does “not know whether she obtained a false certificate or not”.

She said that she “attended lessons at the night school which was run by teachers at the school.”

“All I know is that she (sister) gave me the certificate and I submitted it in all innocence to the university,” she added.

Trevor Spires, panel chairman, said: “The panel consider that there was strong evidence before it that Mrs Kutsirayi did not sit her examinations at Girls High School Harare, nor did she receive qualifications from the University of Cambridge.

“The panel was of the view that Mrs Kutsirayi’s actions constituted a significant departure from the standards expected of a registered nurse.

“The seriousness of the misconduct, in particular the dishonesty, aligned to a complete lack of insight and remorse or evidence of remediation, led the panel to conclude that there remains a significant risk of repetition of the behaviour.”-cambridge-news.co.uk