A NURSE has been struck off following allegations of bullying and fraud.

Rachel Elizabeth Low, of County Durham, was employed as practice business manager at West Rainton Surgery between September 2011 and March 2015.

She began being investigated after she alleged a colleague was responsible for bullying two other members of staff, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) heard.

Between November 2014 and January 2015 she claimed the worker was being rude to staff at the surgery.

Low also instigated a disciplinary process against the colleague and proceedings were launched despite the allegations being untrue.

Earlier this month, an NMC panel heard she had also attempted to influence the disciplinary investigation by instructing another member of staff, known as colleague three, to take notes of a meeting into the circumstances and then asked them to send these to her before the HR consultant.

However, this came to light and Low was suspended from the surgery on March 2, 2015.

The practice then recruited another worker to assist with financial management and her crimes came to light.

During this time, whilst reviewing the financial systems in place they noticed a number of invoices were being paid to a business called Rejuvenate (Durham) Ltd, which was owned by Low.

These included amounts paid for overtime which according to the partners at the surgery, she was not entitled to.

They were also unaware she had claimed this money.

The new staff member also identified invoices and payments made to another person.

However, the partners were not aware of this, and said the agreement made with them was that the person may help out without payment.

They also said it was agreed Lowe would take time off in lieu for extra time worked.

This prompted a criminal trial in July 2018 where the allegations were proved.

In an email from the nurse's Royal College of Nursing representative dated February 2019 she admitted the charges and stated in her reflective statement that she was horrified and sorry.

However, a judge convicted her of two counts of dishonestly making false representation to make gain for herself or another or cause loss to other or expose another to risk.

Low was sentenced to two years conditional discharge on January 7 2019.

The panel chair said: "Your misconduct was such as to impact upon your colleagues and had the potential to impact on the public and in all likelihood put patients at risk. You had breached the fundamental tenets of the nursing profession and therefore brought its reputation into disrepute. This is supported by the extent of your dishonesty spanning a period from 2013 to 2015 and the fact that you were found guilty of dishonesty."

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