NHS consultants and nurses accused of buying fake degrees online

NHS consultants are among thousands who have been accused of buying fake degrees online, an investigation has found.

British nurses, a psychologist, an anaesthetist and an ophthalmologist have allegedly purchased bogus qualifications from Axact, a multi-million pound “diploma mill” based Pakistan.

More than 3,000 fake credentials were sold to UK-based buyers in 2013 and 2014 including master’s degrees, doctorates and PhDs, according to documents seen by BBC Radio 4’s File on Four programme. Axact has strongly denied the claims.

These included a consultant at a London teaching hospital, who allegedly bought a degree in internal medicine from the fake “Belford University”.

An anaesthetist bought a degree in "hospital management", while a consultant in paediatric emergency medicine bought a "master of science in health care technology", it has been claimed. 

A British helicopter company reportedly bought fake degrees for seven employees including two pilots between 2013 and 2015.

FB Heliservices, a Ministry of Defence contractor which trained the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, was investigated by its parent company Cobham over the incident.

A spokesman for Cobham said their investigation found that the purchase of degrees was a "historic" that had “no impact” on the safety of any of its operations. 

"Procedural and disciplinary actions have been taken to address all the issues raised,” the spokesman said, adding that Cobham has a "robust ethical code" and "does not tolerate misconduct of any kind.”

 A Department for Education (DfE) spokesman insisted that they are taking “decisive action” against those who profit from degree fraud. Last year, dozens of fake degree certificate websites were shut down as part of a major crackdown on fraudulent university awards.

Higher Education Degree Datacheck (Hedd) has identified 220  bogus higher education institutions which sell fake degree certificates and non-existent courses in the UK.

Hedd, which was has received funding from the DfE since June 2015 to monitor and investigate potentially fraudulent operations, has so far been responsible for 50 bogus websites being shut down.

Any potentially illegal activity is referred on to Trading Standards or the police, if it is based in the UK. For overseas outfits, Hedd alerts the relevant authority in that particular country.

Jayne Rowley, chief executive of Prospects which runs Hedd, is urging ministers to introduce compulsory checks on qualifications of prospective employees in the public sector, security and safety critical jobs.

She claimed that Axact, whose operations were exposed by a New York Times investigation in 2015, remain one of the biggest global purveyors of fake degrees.

“The root of the problem is that people don’t make proper checks, they don’t confirm with universities,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “If they did, all the cheats and frauds would be found out.”

The General Medical Council (GMC) said that they check doctors’ university degrees, but it is up to employers to verify any additional qualifications which doctors cite to support an application for a particular role.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “We wish to reassure the public that all NHS trusts take seriously their responsibility to ensure their local recruitment practices are compliant with the NHS Employment Check Standards issued by NHS Employers."

A spokesman for Axact said accusations are “baseless” and the BBC’s investigation contains “substandard, nonfactual and fallacious reporting pertaining to maligning and defamatory false accusations.”

The spokesman added: “No substantial evidence has been provided to prove the veracity of these claims. Such claims are made for the rivals’ personal vendetta against the Axact group and its management.

“All business units of Axact are completely legitimate, legal and committed to enhancing the quality of IT services across the world.”