NHS trust CEO found faking his qualifications |
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Fri, 19 Aug 2005 09:05
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LONDON: A former chief executive of a NHS Trust admitted having faked his curriculum vitae and landed a 115,000 pound -a-year job. Neil Taylor, 42, pleaded guilty before a magistrates' court in Shrewsbury admitting he had falsely claimed to be a graduate and produced a bogus degree certificate purporting to be from the University of Nottingham in a bid to retain his job as head of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust.
Taylor had resigned in October last year. He faces charges of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and attempting to repeat the offence. The magistrates found the offence so serious that they sent him to crown court for sentencing, which will be in six weeks. Meanwhile he was granted unconditional bail.
Taylor had millions of pounds worth in budget at his disposal and several hundreds of staff under him as the head of the Trust. He admitted in the court that he awarded a first class degree from Nottingham University and downloaded logos from the university's site to prepare the certificates.
Taylor said after his appearance before the court: "I regret I did something foolish. It was due to pressure." The magistrates' court was told that he had successfully ran Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, where he cut waiting lists and helped the hospital achieve the highest, three-star status. When Royal Shrewsbury Hospital merged with Princess Royal Hospital in Telford in October 2003 to form the new trust, he was the unanimous choice for the chief executive's post.
The deception came to light in April last year at a salary review session, when he claimed he was BA in business administration and economics, was a graduate of the Institute of Personnel Management and had a postgraduate diploma in forensic medicine, all from Nottingham. When he was asked to produce the certificates, he indeed did, but it was clear the university's logo was made up. It was found that there was no Institute of Personnel Management. All that he had were a couple of A-levels.
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