A midwife has been suspended for nine months after a panel ruled she had created a fraudulent Masters degree certificate to apply for a director's job at a military hospital in Saudi Arabia.
Mary Clarke, 59, didn't even need the additional Midwifery qualification to apply for the role at King Fahad Military Medical Complex in the Middle East. However, it was found she created a fake Edinburgh Napier University certificate with the forged signature of a dead man and sent it off as part of her application in early 2019.
Clarke was busted after Napier University was asked to verify the authenticity of the degree by recruiters at the hospital. The university, where Clarke completed her midwifery undergrad in 2001 had no record of her receiving a Masters degree in 2007. Clerks at the university also spotted the certificate appeared to have been signed by the uni chancellor who had passed away four years earlier.
Napier staff told the panel they spotted several similarities between the fake degree and Clarke's genuine undergraduate certificate, which she had been awarded by Napier in 2001. They added that official records showed the already qualified midwife was not even halfway towards the 180 academic credits needed for a Masters.
Clarke admitted to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) that she listed the degree on her CV, but denied making a dishonest bid to tart up her application.
She told the hearing the award had been posted to her and she had given it no second thought, as a lecturer had advised her she was eligible for it. However, she could not provide proof she had achieved the credits needed for the top-class degree.
The panel concluded that her story was "not plausible" and that the midwife had acted dishonestly, her "premeditated act motivated by financial gain". It also compared her genuine and fake awards side-by-side and noted they were, in many respects, "the same".
A disciplinary panel decided there was evidence enough to prove she knew what she was doing was wrong. It said Clarke's "deplorable" behaviour fell "seriously short" of the standards expected of senior midwives and issued a suspension.
In a written summary, the panel said: "Midwives occupy a position of privilege and trust in society and are expected at all times to be professional. Patients and their families must be able to trust midwives with their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
"To justify that trust, midwives must be honest and open and act with integrity. Your dishonesty was serious and involved the deliberate use of a false and inaccurate Masters degree certificate in a job application for a lucrative, overseas post."
Clarke's solicitor Christie Wishart said the midwife genuinely believed she had done enough for a Masters, and had made an "error of judgement" by listing the degree on her CV. She has since enrolled with the University of the West of Scotland to finish her post-grad studies.
When contacted by the Record, Clarke insisted that she is innocent and claimed that Napier made an "administrative error" in sending her the certificate.
She said: "This has been an absolute nightmare and the NMC evidence is hearsay. I have been provided with the opportunity to provide evidence which will clear my name and that is the plan at the moment.
"I haven't shied away from the NMC process at any point. I feel I need to go through this to get to the end and reveal the truth."
If Clarke does appeal the suspension will be doubled to 18 months while the case is reconsidered.
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