A former teacher who used her daughter's fingerprints in an attempt to hide her criminal past has today been jailed for two years.

Samantha Burmis was sentenced in her absence after she took an overdose of pills and alcohol shortly before she was due to appear in court and was admitted to Darent Valley hospital.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC branded the 44-year-old mother as "devious, manipulative and thoroughly dishonest".

He added she was prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to serve her own selfish interests.

Burmis, of Bellman Avenue, Gravesend, denied obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but was convicted of both charges in July.

She maintained she had neither been convicted of an offence nor had she been to jail and persuaded her daughter Nina to pose as her and give her fingerprints in an attempt to prove her claim.

Nina Burmis, 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 - with supervision and curfew for four months.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the plan came unstuck because 24-year-old Nina's prints were already on the police file as she had been convicted of using a forged cheque to pay for a £3,200 breast enlargement.

Using the married surname Virgo, 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 obtained a qualification at the University of Greenwich and trained to be a teacher.

But when she applied for a teaching post at Aylesford School, Maidstone, she failed to reveal the conviction.

"The decision by her not to disclose previous convictions was deliberate because she feared if she did disclose them she would jeopardise her chances of being employed by the school," said prosecutor Ed Connell.

She was employed by the school from May 2001 to February 2005 and received income of just under £60,000.

Police had Samantha Burmis' prints from when she was originally arrested. In an attempt to distance herself from her past she offered to have them taken again.

But when an expert went to her home, Nina Burmis covered her face and handed over her mother's driving licence as proof of identity.

Samantha Burmis sought damages of £1.2million at an Employment Tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal and racial and sexual discrimination.

In September 2009, she was awarded £22,000 against the school and £6,500 against another "individual".