Nurse forged Botox prescriptions for her own beauty business
A NURSE has been struck off for forging Botox prescriptions from the NHS to use in her private beauty business.
Mother-of-two Kate Matthew, 35, used a photocopied signature of a doctor she met on a course to obtain six prescriptions.
She then used the to carry out private treatments worth £3,300.
She was caught when a pharmacy contacted the doctor with a query about one of the orders.
An investigation was then launched, a Nurse and Midwifery Council hearing was told.
Matthew admitted she could have put “lives at risk” if her clients had been on medication she “was not aware of”.
The nurse was moonlighting from her NHS role as a health visitor for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board based in Newport, South Wales.
Her private business – Kate Matthew Medical Aesthetics – specialised in lip fillers, eyebrow raises and face lifts.
Presenting officer Bryony Dongray said: “The doctor had written blank prescriptions in good faith. These prescriptions Botox facial were photocopied and reused on six occasions.”
Matthew, from Cwmbran, Gwent, was confronted by a pharmacist the next time she tried to get a new prescription.
She paid for the Botox by credit card but avoided paying a £30 “signature fee” to the doctor for each prescription.
Matthew told the hearing she did not initially confess what she had done to police as she was “in denial”.
She told the hearing: “I didn’t want to admit to it. I was ashamed. My judgment was so clouded at the time – it was like information overload.”
Asked how her dishonesty affected the profession, she said: “Our code of conduct is for us to be trustworthy. The public rely on us and trust us. By being dishonest it was deceiving.”
Matthew admitted to the hearing she had “cut corners” and put her clients’ health at risk.
She said: “They could have been on medication that I was not aware of. They could have had a reaction.”
The hearing was told she pleaded guilty to fraud six weeks before she was due to go for trial at Cardiff Crown Court last year.
She was given an eight month sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work.
The fitness to practice hearing in Cardiff struck her off indefinitely from working as a registered nurse.
Monica French, chair of the NMC panel, said it would “mark the importance in maintaining public confidence”.
Matthew said she still plans to continue her private practice in a “managerial role” and will hire a nurse to carry out procedures.