Dagenham nurse guilty of fraud is freed from jail

A mental health nurse jailed after using false documents to obtain training and a job in the UK has been freed on appeal.

Mother-of-two, Abiodun Salami, 35, of Armstead Walk, Dagenham, had overstayed on her visa but passed herself off as British by presenting a fake birth certificate to claim almost �36,000 in grants to qualify at Middlesex University.

Salami, from Nigeria originally, also tricked the NHS into paying her tuition fees of more than �17,000 and went on to be paid more �94,000 in wages by Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust between August 2003 and October last year.

She was jailed for nine months at Snaresbrook Crown Court in November this year, after pleading guilty to two counts of using a false instrument and two counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

Now, however, Mr Justice Jack and Judge Martin Stephens QC, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, have overturned that sentence and replaced it with a suspended term and an order that she perform unpaid work, allowing her to walk free.

Mr Justice Jack emphasised her position as a mother and the surrounding circumstances of the offence, including the fact that she paid national insurance and tax on all the money she earned as a nurse.

Allowing the appeal, he concluded: “The motivation for suspending the sentence is strong in this case. We allow this appeal to the extent that the sentence is one of nine months, suspended for two years.”

The appeal judge also ordered her to work 100 hours unpaid and imposed a two-year supervision order.