A nurse who raked in £26,000 as a registered carer, after lying in her application and putting her own children at risk, has been thrown out of the profession.
Chasisa Moyo told a string of ‘systematic’ lies about her home life and career to land a place on the Shared Lives scheme in 2010.
She claimed to live alone, and swept her home clean of any sign of her three children when she was assessed for eligibility.
She also lied on the application by saying that her husband was just a friend who would help out.
Moyo was assigned six vulnerable service users through the programme, boosting her earnings by £26,043.96 between November 2010 and July 2013.
One of the service users she was assigned had learning difficulties and convictions for serious sexual assaults against children, and two others had previously assaulted carers.
She joined the scheme while working for the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust at the Bradgate Mental Health Unit in Groby Road, Leicester.
However, she failed to reveal that she was employed full-time, and would have to work nightshifts at times when she was needed to look after service users.
At a Nursing and Midwifery Council tribunal, Moyo was banned from the profession after admitting most of the charges against her.
‘You had deliberately sought to misrepresent your circumstances,’ said Gill Madden, chairing the hearing.
‘It was not satisfied that you had made the service users placed in your care your first concern.
‘Your dishonesty had been systematic, over a period of several years, and for personal financial gain.’
Moyo was found to have put the safety of the service users as well as her own family in danger.
When the scheme’s team manager visited her home in October 2010, there was no evidence of children living in the family home.
Moyo put her husband down on the application form as a ‘friend’, but the truth of their marriage came out after an incident at Asda when Moyo’s husband was spotted looking after a service user while his wife did the shopping.
Investigations showed that Moyo and her husband had been working night shifts at times when they were supposed to be looking after service users.
On other occasions, the patients were cared for by relatives instead of Moyo.
‘You not only placed the service users at a risk of harm, but also your family members, including your children’, said Ms Madden.
‘For example, one of the service users had been convicted of serious sexual offences against children and it was made clear to you by staff of the scheme that he should not be in the house if there were any children present.
‘Another service user displayed serious behavioural issues with a history of assaulting members of staff and causing damage to property.’
Moyo, who was present but not represented at the hearing, has been struck off the nursing register.
