Thames Valley and Surrey universities nursing student jailed for NHS fraud

A woman whose application for asylum in the UK was refused, after she overstayed on a student visa, has been sentenced to six months in prison for defrauding the NHS.

This concludes an investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Service and the Immigration Crime Team of Thames Valley Police.

Memory Chamboko, 35, of College Town, Owlsmoor, Hampshire, defrauded the NHS of £18,699.93 and pleaded guilty to seven offences, involving deception and false documentation.

She started a Diploma of Higher Education in Adult Nursing at the University of Surrey in September 2006 and applied for an NHS Student Bursary. She supported her applications with a false Home Office letter stating she had indefinite leave to remain in the UK, which was a condition of acceptance for both the course and bursary.

She received bursary payments of £3,952.81 to cover September 2006 to March 2007 but, after an unsatisfactory Criminal Records Bureau check, Chamboko withdrew from the course in March 2007.

She then fraudulently obtained a place on an Adult Nursing course at Thames Valley University, which she attended from March 2008 until her arrest on 15 th April, 2010. For this application she used the name Rutendo Memory Chamboko, giving a different date of birth from that given to Surrey University. As a result she received additional NHS Student Bursary payments of £14,747.12.

Chamboko entered the UK in January 2002 as a student and in January 2007 was served papers as an overstayer. A subsequent asylum application was refused and an appeal dismissed.