Doctor blamed politicians for debt

A doctor who blamed her inability to repay her debts on a bad investment in ex-MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine was suspended for 18 months.

Dr Olufunmilayo Akinloye pressured work colleagues to lend her money and often failed to repay it, a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing in Manchester found.

The GMC said she obtained money dishonestly when she worked at Atos Origin, a medical consultancy service which assessed benefits claimants for the Department for Work and Pensions, between 2003 to 2006.

The doctor, from east London, owes around £5,470 to her seven known creditors at Atos. She claimed she needed money to ward off bailiffs and pay for a relative's body to be repatriated to Nigeria.

Dr Akinloye pressured a doctor to lend her £500 after telling him her father was a powerful and wealthy politician in their native Nigeria. She also persuaded two doctors to pay her husband to do landscaping work at their homes which was never satisfactorily completed.

Dr Akinloye told her employer that she was struggling financially because she had lost money in a investment which involved UK politicians, and named the Hamiltons.

She was dismissed by Atos Origin on the grounds of gross misconduct.

Dr Akinloye did not attend the hearing or have a legal representative there.

Christine Hamilton, wife of ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, said she had no idea who Dr Akinloye is.

The GMC found her fitness to practise was impaired by reason of misconduct.

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