A CHILDREN’S nurse who forged his UK visa application to get a job at Northwick Park Hospital has been spared jail for fraud.

Despite not having legal status in the UK, Chidi Amaju completed a three year diploma in child nursing at the University of West London before securing a job at the Watford Road hospital in Harrow.

He was employed there from June 2009 until resigning in July 2011, fraudulently earning £25,236 while working as a staff nurse.

He was also illegitimately awarded an NHS bursary of £22,958 as part of his employment, while his tuition fees of £19,655 were also paid by the NHS.

Amaju, 41, of Midland Terrace, North Acton, stated he had the right to work in the UK when he applied for his post at North West London Hospital NHS Trust in December 2008.

But in April last year, when his employers asked for documents to prove it, he produced a copy of the identity page from his passport and a letter from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) dated March 2011, stating they held his passport and a copy of his National Insurance number card.

However, the National Insurance number did not match the one given on his original job application.

NHS Protect’s investigators established that to support his university and bursary applications, Amaju provided a passport with a forged UK visa stamp, dated September 2002, which purported to grant indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

He also falsely claimed to have been granted leave to remain in July 2001.

He was hauled in front of the courts where he admitted seven counts of fraud, theft and forgery.

He received a one year suspended prison sentence at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday, April 27, and was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work and to pay £2,000 in compensation within a month.

Speaking after the case Mick Hayes, Anti-Fraud Lead at NHS Protect, said: “Chidi Amaju was not eligible to take up a university place, to receive NHS funding, or to work in the NHS.

“Through his dishonesty, he may have denied another person these opportunities.”