Zimbabwean nurse struck off UK register

A Zimbabwean nurse who created a Cambridge University qualification with Photoshop has been thrown out of the profession.

Chenesai Kutsirayi created a fake certificate to prove she had passed exams awarded by the prestigious university.

The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate provides education assessments to overseas students, the Nursing and Midwifery Council was told.

But experts found series of errors in the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education certificate, it was said.

Fonts were incorrect, lines were spaced wrongly and part of her school's name was missing.

Kutsirayi tried to back up her certificate with a fake letter of recommendation from her former headmistress.

Giving evidence over the phone from Zimbabwe, the headmistress told the hearing that she did not write the letter and the signature was not hers.

In fact, the fake letter had been stamped with a date before she had started her position at Girls High School Harare.

Michael Bowerman, an expert from Cambridge International Examinations, told the hearing:

"All certificates for the whole world are printed at a secure facility in Cambridge and sent by air mail.

"This is one of the things we see - is people using Photoshop."

An NMC panel found that Kutsirayi's actions amount to misconduct and that her fitness to practice was currently impaired.

Panel Chair Trevor Spires said: 'We found that Mrs Kutsirayi's behaviour fell far short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and was serious to amount to misconduct.

‘The seriousness of the misconduct, in particular the dishonesty, aligned to a complete lack of insight and remorse or evidence of remediation, led us to conclude that there remains a significant risk of repetition of the behaviour.