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A care worker who made up a family illness to get days off was sacked after her deception was exposed by her sister’s social media posts, a specialist tribunal found.
Natalie Twomey sent an email to her London Ambulance Service (LAS) boss claiming her sister’s health had “deteriorated again” and she needed to be driven to Norfolk.
However, LAS staff discovered photos of the Christmas-decorated home posted on her sister’s Facebook account that day.
The panel found this to be “inconsistent” with the sister being seriously ill and requiring visits.
The Health and Care Professions Tribunal’s written judgment said Ms Toomey told “lies” to “mislead” her employer, describing it as a “deception” for “personal gain”.
The panel heard Ms Twomey sent an email to her boss on November 28, 2022, which read: “I had to call in sick as my sister’s condition worsened again and had to drive back to Norfolk to be with her.”
The panel heard that LAS discovered a post on Twomey’s sister’s Facebook account that contained photos of the house decorated for Christmas on 28 November.
When the paramedic was asked about the posts at a competency meeting in April 2023, she said her sister worked in the ITU (Intensive Care Unit) and that her sister’s husband was responsible for the posts on his wife’s Facebook account.
The panel found that Ms Twomey knew her sister was not ill on November 28 and said she “deliberately provided misleading information to her employer to excuse absences from work”.
They found: “The message conveyed by the photo of Christmas decorations was inconsistent with the fact that the registrant’s sister was ill, to the extent that the registrant had to drive to Norfolk to be with her instead of fulfilling her work responsibilities.”
The paramedic was removed from frontline duties in June 2023 after coming to work smelling of alcohol.
But it is understood she failed to inform them of the restrictions on her practice when renewing her registration with the regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
Ms Twomey also sent an email to LAS Recruitment to discuss the secondment, claiming that her reasons for taking on a non-patient role were due to back and knee injuries.
The caregiver also provided false information about her working hours in 2023.
Ms Twomey was dismissed from LAS at the end of 2023 for “being able but failing to attend work regularly”.
The committee heard that in an interview afterwards she claimed she had never been subject to any disciplinary hearing and had never been sacked.
She also said that although she was aware that the HCPC was investigating her fitness to practice, there were no outstanding investigations against her.
In April 2024, while she was working as a paramedic at the Police Investigation Center, an officer smelled alcohol on her breath and asked her to take a breath test.
Paramedics drove to the scene, arrested her and issued a warning.
Ms Twomey was found guilty of a driving offense at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court in April 2024 after pleading guilty to driving a motor vehicle over the prescribed limit.
The panel found Ms Toomey’s conduct was “serious enough to amount to misconduct” and removed her name from the register.
“The panel concluded that the appropriate and proportionate sanction in this case was a delisting order,” they said.