More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A former teacher jailed for two years for deception and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice is asking for the sentence to be reviewed.
Samantha Burmis was sentenced in her absence when she failed to appear at Maidstone Crown Court on August 2 after taking an overdose and being admitted to Darent Valley Hospital.
She was discharged but then went to Littlebrook Hospital in Stone, which treats mental health patients.
On leaving the hospital, the 44-year-old mother of four, of Bellman Avenue, Gravesend, was arrested and taken to Maidstone Crown Court.
Burmis was brought before Judge Charles Byers on August 12 and then sent off to start serving the term.
But she has now been back in court before Judge David Griffith-Jones QC, who conducted the trial, to ask for transfer of legal representation to apply for the sentence to be reviewed.
The judge adjourned the hearing until September 12 when, he said, all matters should be finally resolved.
A jury heard how Burmis used her daughter Nina's fingerprints in an attempt to hide her criminal past.
She denied obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but was convicted.
Her daughter Nina, 24, of Empire Way, Wembley, also denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and was convicted. She was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment suspended for two years.
Her mother maintained she had neither been convicted of an offence nor been to jail and persuaded her daughter Nina to pose as her and give her fingerprints in an attempt to prove her claim.
But Nina's prints were already on police files as she had been convicted of using a forged cheque to pay for a £3,200 breast enlargement.
Samantha Burmis was jailed for a year at Harrow Crown Court in January 1995 for a £90,000 mortgage fraud.
After serving the sentence she studied law at the University of Kent in Canterbury. She then qualified further and trained to be a teacher.
But when she applied for a teaching post at Aylesford School, Maidstone, she failed to reveal the conviction.
She was employed from May 2001 to February 2005 and received a total income of just under £60,000.
Burmis sought damages of £1.2 million at an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal and racial and sexual discrimination. In September 2009, she was awarded £28,500 in damages.
Judge Griffith-Jones QC branded Burmis "devious, manipulative and thoroughly dishonest".
