By Patience Gondo
A Zimbabwean man who posed as a qualified nurse for more than four years allegedly relying on Google to treat vulnerable patients has been jailed in the United Kingdom.
Ashton Guramatunhu, 46 was sentenced to 40 months in prison by Liverpool Crown Court after admitting to fraud by false representation, following years of secretly working in nursing homes without any medical qualifications.
Court documents show that Guramatunhu began his deception in late 2014, when he assumed the identity of a genuine nurse to register with a nursing agency in Warrington Cheshire.
Using the stolen identity, he secured shifts across six nursing homes in northeast England between January 2015 and April 2019 earning £172,920.94.
For years, elderly and vulnerable patients unknowingly relied on his care a human interest dimension that prosecutors said highlighted the seriousness of the offence.
The court heard that some staff members were distressed to later learn that the man they had trusted with the lives of frail residents had never been trained.
Guramatunhu’s deception unravelled in January 2019, after the real nurse received an inquiry from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) about an incident involving his conduct at a care home he had never worked at.
Confused, he alerted the NMC and later reported the matter to Cleveland Police, prompting an investigation that exposed the four year fraud.
Investigators discovered that Guramatunhu, who lived in Dudley, had been relying on internet searches including Google to assess and diagnose patients, a practice prosecutors said placed lives of innocent patients at risk.
His arrest brought relief to the real nurse whose identity he stole, and to staff and families at the homes where he worked.
For many, the case renewed calls for stricter verification processes in the UK care sector, where staff shortages have seen agencies heavily rely on temporary workers.
Guramatunhu pleaded guilty and was jailed this week, closing a case that shocked many in the health sector and left families questioning how such a deception could last for years undetected.