By Vic Rodrick

Copyright dailyrecord

A nurse pretended she had leukaemia in a bizarre bid to win love and sympathy from her friends and family. Amanda Muir told her husband and three children that she was dying and shaved her head to make it look as though she was receiving cancer treatment. She even faked medical letters to convince the NHS to prescribe her strong medication, including morphine, and went on to falsely claim a pension for her “ill health retirement”. The neo natal nurse who worked at Wishaw General Hospital in North Lanarkshire, was charged with obtaining £185,442.95 from the Scottish Pensions Authority by fraud between 13 April 2021 and 31 August 2024. The indictment charge stated that he claimed she was terminally ill with Leukaemia and therefore entitled to certain payments, the charge said, the truth being – as she well knew – that she were not so ill and was not so entitled. Fiona Hamilton, prosecuting, told Livingston Sheriff Court that Muir had been referred for palliative care within the NHS in June 2024 she was. But on August 12 a member of the care team raised “red flags” about her medical history and confirmed that the accused’s consultant at a Spire private hospital had not treated her for cancer. The consultant confirmed that the letters purportedly signed by him were not genuine and detectives who went to arrest Muir, who was on holiday in Portpatrick, Dumfries and Galloway. They found her in bed with a cannula in her arm and her head shaved. Police later found templates derived from the consultant’s original letter telling her she did not have cancer at Muir’s home in Bathgate, West Lothian. Defence counsel Jonathan Crow revealed that the accused had since been diagnosed with a “factitious disorder” – a mental illness in which a person, without a malingering motive, acts as if they have an illness by deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms to assume the role of a patient. He said the 46-year-old had been ostracised by her friends and family, who had effectively disowned her. He said: “On her behalf I’m instructed to issue a public apology for all those who have been affected by her behaviour and her criminality. She describes a snowball effect where one thing led to another until she couldn’t turn back from what she was doing.” He asked the court to accept that the fraud was a by-product of Muir’s feigned illness rather than a pre-planned fraud. He said she had never been in trouble before and still had £100,000 of the money which she was willing and able to return. Passing sentence , Sheriff Susan Craig highlighted that Muir had received prescriptions for controlled drugs from the NHS, although those had not been charged as crimes. She went on: “It’s important to state that this is a fraud on the Pensions Agency by producing 16 fraudulent letters. It was a substantial fraud and it resulted in you receiving a significant sum of money. The other aggravating factor is that the fraud went on for a very long time and that you kept up the deceit despite knowing you were not ill.” The sheriff said Muir had deliberately altered her appearance and had taken weight loss medication to make it seem as if she was undergoing chemotherapy . She added: “It appears to me your culpability in this matter was high and the harm you caused was significant. While the Pensions Agency is not an individual it’s a public body and it’s publicly funded.” She said she took into account that Muir had been ostracised by her family and had lost the support of the wider community. She also accepted that the accused was apologetic and embarrassed over what she had done. However, she added: “I’m satisfied that the custodial threshold has been met and I’m also satisfied that a community sentence is not appropriate given the nature of this offence. A custodial sentence is the appropriate disposal.” She jailed Muir for two years and continued consideration of confiscation proceedings until December.