THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN AMENDED - see below
A SHAMED nurse has been struck off the nursing register over a fraudulent compensation pay-out she received in a bogus "crash for cash" insurance scam.
Nicola Bartlett, 50, committed the offence while working in a Gwent hospital A&E department.
Nicola Bartlett (Picture: Wales News Service)
The nurse, who worked at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr Hospital and the Royal Gwent Hospital, said another driver ploughed into her car writing it off, but she was convicted of conspiracy to defraud in Britain's biggest ever insurance racket, which was spearheaded by several members of a family from Blackwood.
Images released by police at the time in relation to the cash for crash scam (Pictures: Wales News Service)
Easifix garage in Newport, helped stage 28 fraudulent crashes to collect pay-outs totalling £750,000 between 2009 and 2011.
But the fraudsters were caught out by their own CCTV cameras showing a Land Rover being deliberately driven into a forklift truck.
One of the ringleaders of the scam was Rachel Marie Yandell (Picture: Wales News Service)
Peter Yandell helped spearheaded the criminal enterprise
And Gavin Yandell also played a signifcant role in the fraud
A total of 150 people were convicted in the Crash for Cash scam.
Bartlett was found guilty by a jury of one count of conspiracy to defraud in relation to the fraud, in 2016, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.
But then, in January last year, she was given an immediate jail sentence of 12 months after being convicted of a further crash scam bid.
She was sacked from her job with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and suspended from nursing.
And a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has now handed Bartlett a striking off order - removing her from the nursing register.
Panel chair Robert Barnwell said: "Mrs Bartlett’s actions were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse, and are fundamentally incompatible with Mrs Bartlett remaining on the register.
"The panel was of the view that the circumstances in this particular case demonstrate that Mrs Bartlett’s actions were serious and to allow her to continue practising would undermine public confidence in the profession and in the NMC as a regulatory body."
Bartlett, of Bargoed, had been working at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr in Caerphilly county borough.
When she was sentenced for her part in the scam Judge Daniel Williams told her: "You lied to your insurers, and you persisted in those lies at trial. By then, of course, you were trapped in the lies that you had told before.
"You were unable to confront the truth because of the consequences to you and your career."
In the original version of this article it stated that Nicola Bartlett had benefited personally to the tune of £16,000 from the cash for crash scam. This was not the case and we were happy to amend the article and apologise for the inaccuracy, which was in copy supplied to us by a news agency. The correct amount Mrs Bartlett received was £1,350.
Further, the original article also stated Mrs Bartlett was struck off for life by the NMC. We are happy to point out that in fact she is able to reapply for registration after five years.
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