NURSE STRUCK OFF FOR FAKING CANCER TO CLAIM £185,000 PENSION

Amanda Reid, a children's nurse in Scotland, has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council after a panel found she falsely claimed to be terminally ill with leukaemia in order to fraudulently obtain pension payments. She shaved her head daily and used weight loss drugs to persuade her family, children and doctors that she was close to death, the NMC panel found. She also falsified 16 medical documents bearing Spire Hospital Edinburgh branding to convince her GP practice she was gravely ill. Reid received a two-year prison sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court after pleading guilty in September 2025 to defrauding the Scottish Pensions Authority over offending between 13 April 2021 and 31 August 2024. Accounts of the exact sum differ, with one figure given as £185,422.95 and another as £185,442.95.

The tribunal heard Reid also illegally obtained NHS controlled drugs during her three-year period of offending. Quoting the sentencing judge's remarks, the panel noted that some of the money paid for a holiday to Dubai. Reid told proceedings she suffers from Munchausen's syndrome, which the NHS describes as involving the feigning or simulation of illness, and maintained she was not seeking financial gain. A pre-sentence social work report, however, said officials were "unable to independently verify" the diagnosis. Reid made no submissions during the virtual hearing, which was chaired by John Millar.

The panel, chaired by Millar, concluded that Reid's dishonesty was "sustained, deliberate, premeditated" and involved criminal fraud affecting multiple health services, agencies and family members over three years. It said there was no evidence she had put patients at risk of harm, but that her conviction showed a pattern of dishonesty pointing to "deep-seated attitudinal issues." The panel found no evidence of insight or remorse and removed Reid from the nursing register. It said such conduct, if repeated in a clinical setting, would raise significant concerns.