Kathryn Hill forged letters and was deceitful about her own job role (Picture: Getty)
A nurse who lied about her job role and offered two of her close friends fake posts in a ‘grandiose’ plan to deceive them has been struck off.
‘Calculated’ Kathryn Hill forged employment offer letters and sent them to two of her acquaintances in a two-year scheme which saw them uproot their lives and move to Southampton.
The ‘deceitful’ nurse lied about her own job role – telling her friends she had been promoted to care manager – and falsified documents by pretending to be bosses, including the Trust’s CEO.
After one of her friends, referred to as Person A, reported her actions, the nurse was investigated and her ‘elaborate course of dishonesty’ was exposed.
Now, following the events which were described as ‘extraordinary, she has been struck off at a Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] tribunal.
The NMC concluded Ms Hill had ‘deep-seated attitudinal problems’.
She worked for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust in Hampshire (Picture: PA)
The tribunal heard Person A raised concerns to the NMC regarding Ms Hill’s behaviour between 2020 and 2022.
Ms Hill worked as a band six Neuro Nurse Practitioner at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust in Hampshire.
It was heard the nurse had used her NHS position, and Trust email account, to fraudulently offer Person A and her friend, Person B, a role within the Trust which did not exist.
The nurse claimed to have been promoted to a Care Group Manager (CGM) at the Trust and told them she had hiring and firing responsibilities for her department.
She forged documents from the Trust, including from the Chief Executive Officer, and sent these documents to Person A and Person B.
This led to Person A and Person B giving up their employment and moving to Southampton following Ms Hill’s promise of jobs.
It was heard the nurse also told her friends she had been involved in a court case with the Trust and the court had been ‘holding her money’.
Person A lent the nurse a ‘large amount’ of cash and said in an attempt to recover the money, Ms Hill created a false letter from Macmillan Cancer Support that she would be given £72,675.
Ms Hill had also claimed to Person A and Person B – who were ‘close friends’ of the nurse – that she had been offered a job at University of Chicago and invited them to attend and travel via a private plane with her.
The investigation found evidence of serious dishonesty over a significant period of time linked to Ms Hill’s employment.
The nurse was dismissed from her post at the Southampton hospital following a disciplinary hearing held in March last year.
Now, a professional tribunal has decided to strike her off the register.
Ms Hill admitted all of the charges against her but failed to offer any insight, or explicitly state, why she chose to deceive her friends.
In a statement, she told the panel that her nursing career has been an ‘extremely big part of my life for 12 years’ and said she was ‘held in high regard within my role’
‘There was never any question about my clinical ability or care of any patients, and I am extremely disappointed in my actions that have led to this investigation and suspension,’ she said.
The nurse said since her suspension, in December 2022, she has taken up a job as a senior carer and vowed to continue in her career as a carer with ‘honesty and integrity’.
The NMC said Ms Hill engaged in a set of ‘calculated and complex’ actions over a two year period.
‘That included forging multiple documents, impersonating professionals and abusing their position of trust within the Trust,’ the spokesperson said.
They said members of the public would be ‘appalled’ to learn of Ms Hill’s behaviour, and the committee found the nurse’s fitness to practise impaired.
The panel said the charges demonstrate a ‘pattern of dishonest behaviour’ which occurred over a significant period of time.
They said: ‘Ms Hill’s lack of insight and the references she made during her disciplinary hearing that she was good at ‘IT’ and that the forgery and falsification of emails and documents were easy for her to do, illustrated the level of deceit practised by her.
‘The level of complexity, and increasingly detailed and sustained dishonesty, which became grandiose over time, indicates a high risk of repetition.
‘The panel therefore decided that a finding of impairment is necessary on the grounds of public protection.’
They said her conduct showed a ‘repeated and calculated level of dishonesty’ and said a member of public would be ‘horrified’ to learn of her level of deception.
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