A nurse who worked for a mental health trust has been struck off after it emerged she was working illegally in the UK for two years.

Irene Nwaiga was employed by Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust from October 2008, but her employment was ended in September 2011 after the trust discovered her Nigerian passport contained a fraudulent “Indefinite Leave to Remain” stamp.

The case was reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) which last week found that, “Mrs Nwaiga’s actions did fall seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse”.

Mrs Nwaiga did not attend her hearing and provided no references or testimonials, but she admitted all of the allegations in writing.

According to the nursing watchdog, Mrs Nwaiga failed to tell the trust that her student visa expired on December 31, 2009.

In 2010, as part of the National Fraud Initiative, the trust performed a data matching exercise on all employees which involved verifying their payroll details against information held by the UK Border Agency.

They discovered the stamp in the passport appeared to be counterfeit and had been stamped in 2004, despite the passport not being issued until 2005.

The panel concluded: “The conduct, as highlighted by the facts found proved, was a significant departure from the standards expected of a registered nurse. The panel was of the view that Mrs Nwaiga’s actions are fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register.”