A bogus nurse has avoided jail after admitting she worked at several GP surgeries in Medway while unqualified.

Denice Stewart had admitted eight charges - three of fraud, two of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, theft, possessing articles for use in fraud and using a false instrument with intent.

The 48-year-old mother was given a jail sentence of 20 months for each of the offences, to run concurrently. This was suspended for two years, meaning if she offends again within that time she will go to prison.

Stewart was working in Kent between 2006 and 2011 when she was not qualified and falsely represented she was a registered nurse.

Two of the fraud charges relate to the Bryant Street Medical Centre, in Chatham, and the Brecon Medical Group in Wales.

She was employed at three GPs' practices in Medway – one in Chatham, and two in Gillingham. She carried out a number of procedures, including smear tests and vaccinations.

Prosecutor Alan Gardner told Maidstone Crown Court Stewart first fell under suspicion when she was working in Wales in May 2011 when the practice manager became concerned about her credentials.

He looked at her file and saw that there were two dates of birth. One of these was for Amaya Lloyd-Johnson, whose identity Stewart used to gain work as a nurse.

Stewart had moved into her house in Durham in 2003 and received forms from the Nursing and Midwifery Council because Miss Lloyd-Johnson failed to update her address.

Mr Gardner said: "She worked at several GPs round the country carrying out a number of medical procedures she was not qualified to undertake."

In 2009, the NMC became suspicious when Amaya Lloyd-Johnson contacted them about her registration. But that was as far as the matter went, which Judge Jeremy Carey said was a "worrying state of affairs".

The discovery of the two dates of birth was when the net began to close on Stewart, who sat in a red coat with her head bowed throughout the hearing.

The practice manager at the surgery in Wales contacted the NMC and this led to Stewart's arrest in July 2011.