ONE of Lancashire’s most senior midwives has been struck off for an alleged overtime fiddle lasting more than six months.

Nursing chiefs told Kay Fazackerley she dishonestly claimed extra pay, amounting to a ‘substantial amount of money’, while working as the antenatal clinic manager at Chorley Hospital.

Fazackerley claimed, during a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practice hearing, that she had been given authorisation to claim back extra hours as overtime. But an NMC panel heard that at least on one occasion she claimed a full day’s pay and two hours overtime on a bank holiday when the clinic was closed.

She was caught out when hospital matron Sue Sherlock raised concerns about the manager making repeated overtime claims.

The panel heard that Fazackerley had previously worked alongside another midwive at the unit – but she had left in September 2008 and not been replaced.

Fazackerley made a number of requests for extra support from her bosses at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, as she felt under pressure and overworked.

This resulted in Ms Sherlock authorising a one-off pay-ment for 44 hours of accrued overtime, during that period, the NMC hearing was told.

But Fazackerley continued to claim an extra two hours, most days between May and October 2009, without permission from her bosses.

She claimed she had been shown how to claim the extra hours as overtime by Ms Sherlock – which she denied.

Her representative Bruce Henry said his client had a ‘genuine belief’ that she was allowed to claim.

A panel ruled that Faz-ackerley had been dishonest in relation to seven misconduct charges – but not in a further six.

Announcing that she would be struck off, panel chairman John Crawley said: “She was claiming overtime almost every day She was not taking care as to whether she was in fact working or not.”