An NHS administrator has been spared jail after sending £80,000 of taxpayer cash to her Nigerian online boyfriend.
Between June 2021 and January 2023, Hyacinth Blair, 63, withdrew large sums from South London & Maudsley NHS trust accounts.
Blair proceeded to send the eye-watering amount of cash to Michael Okafor, a Nigerian man whom she had been dating online.
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|Hyacinth Blair, 63, withdrew large sums from South London & Maudsley NHS trust accounts
The NHS staffer said that she felt "helpless" after being pressured by Okafor to send the money from her employer's accounts.
Judge Lynn Tayton KC said that the money stolen by Blair was intended to be used for public services - and that the NHS worker's actions had caused damage to her colleagues.
She said: “There had to be thorough review of financial controls... incidents like this undermine confidence in the council’s systems.
“The consequences of your actions will be felt for long time and the impact on staff and the community was severe.”
Blair initially told probation officers that she had "no idea" why she pocketed the taxpayer cash from her employer's account, but later said that she was “in an online relationship with a man in Nigeria who demanded money”.
The court heard that the 63-year-old is now unemployed, on Universal Credit, and has suffered from depression.
Tayton said: “You said you felt pressure to give this money. You told the officer you felt concerned about taking money from your employer but felt helpless.
“In my view there was sustained dishonesty not only explained by pressure or mental health issues.”
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|The NHS administrator said that she felt "helpless" after being pressured by Okafor to send the money
Blair was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position.
The judge explained her decision not to send the fraudster to jail was down to her having "no previous convictions" and references that "speak of positive character".
Alongside the suspended sentence, Blair was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work, 15 days of rehabilitation activity and must go through six months of mental health treatment.
The judge labelled Blair "fortunate" and warned her that "if you come back before this court you will go to prison".
Romance fraud saw Britons swindled out of £106million in the last 12 months, according to police data.
Victims parted with over £11,000 on average - and almost 10,000 individual cases of romance fraud were reported in the last financial year.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau reported that these type of scams have risen by nine per cent in the past 12 months.
The Association of British Investigators said that the scams are mostly run by organised crime syndicates, predominantly from West African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria.