Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
NMC panel strikes off nurse Claire King over medication theft and dishonesty
The Nursing and Midwifery Council's Fitness to Practise Committee has struck registered nurse Claire King off the register, finding she repeatedly stole medication from a Livingston hospital, took money from a patient and a colleague, and dishonestly falsified a patient's medication records.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 25 June 2026 · Updated 8 July 2026
Erasure (struck off the register)
Added to MedicWatch: 8 July 2026Report a correction
What does “struck off the register” mean?
Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.
Concerning Claire King, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 11I2641S).
Decision date: 25 June 2026 · Hearing started 8 June 2026 and ended 25 June 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that Claire King, a registered nurse in West Lothian, repeatedly stole medication from St John's Hospital, took money from a patient and a colleague, and dishonestly falsified a patient's medication record. The panel decided her misconduct made her fitness to practise impaired and imposed a striking-off order, saying her repeated dishonesty showed deep-seated attitudinal concerns with no insight or remediation. One charge of failing to co-operate with medical testing was found not proved.
Charges
The charges alleged that Ms King, a registered nurse at St John's Hospital, Livingston, stole medication from the hospital on several occasions between December 2018 and February 2019; stole codeine phosphate and dihydrocodeine tablets from the lockers of two patients; recorded on a patient's drug Kardex that she had administered dihydrocodeine when she had not, and did so dishonestly; obtained medication-cupboard ('pod') keys from a colleague while prohibited from access; attempted to steal £20 from a patient and £5 from a colleague, in each case dishonestly; and attended a ward, while prohibited from handling medication, in an attempt to steal medication. A further charge alleged she failed to co-operate with NMC-requested medical testing.
Findings
The panel found charges 1, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9a, 9b, 10, 11, 12 and 14 proved on the balance of probabilities, relying on witness evidence, contemporaneous local statements, forensic fingerprint evidence and a police search that recovered hospital-labelled medication from Ms King's home. Charge 13 (failing to co-operate with medical testing) was found not proved, the panel not being satisfied she was under a duty to comply. The panel decided the proved facts amounted to misconduct, breaching standards of the NMC Code including those on record-keeping and acting with honesty and integrity, and that Ms King's fitness to practise is currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds, citing repeated dishonesty indicative of deep-seated attitudinal concerns, an absence of insight, remorse or remediation, and a risk of repetition.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
The panel considered that there are no mitigating features in this case.
Aggravating factors
The panel took into account the following aggravating features: abuse of a position of trust; conduct which deliberately or recklessly puts people receiving care at risk of suffering harm; deliberate breaches of the Code; a pattern of wide-ranging and serious misconduct over a period of time; minimal engagement in the Fitness to Practise process, without good reason; absence of insight, remorse, or remediation; misconduct against vulnerable patients; and premeditated, calculated, and predatory behaviour which Ms King adapted to the circumstances.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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