A NURSE has been suspended for fraudulently claiming sick pay while working elsewhere.

Lindsay Kate Lord admitted working agency shifts through the Pulse agency while receiving sick pay at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) during a recent hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Between November 2013 and December 2014, Lord, a staff nurse in the Critical Care Unit at Royal Blackburn Hospital, was found to have worked 10 shifts (101.25 hours) while off sick or on a phased return

While between January 2015 and July 2015, she worked 39 shifts while on long term sick leave.

But her wrongdoing came to light after a colleague saw her working an agency shift at Bradford Royal Infirmary on July 25, 2015.

The Trust dismissed her for gross misconduct in November

2015 following a disciplinary investigation.

Lord also admitted to not disclosing to the Pulse Agency between September 2015 and March 2016, the fact that ELHT was conducting a disciplinary investigation and that she was subsequently dismissed.

While a panel of the NMC also found her fitness to practise as a nurse is' impaired' after she was convicted at Burnley Magistrates’ Court of driving with excess alcohol on March 1 last year, and for accepted a caution for harassment without violence at Burnley Police station on July 20 last year.

The NMC said: "The panel determined that a suspension order for the maximum period of 12 months was appropriate in this case as anything less would fail to mark the seriousness of the misconduct, conviction and caution."

Lord was given a suspension order of 12 months and an interim suspension order for 18 months.