To think that if there was enough evidence to sack this nurse...

[OhBumBags]

There should've been enough evidence to 'provide a realistic prospect of conviction'?

She was sacked for stealing a bank card from an elderly dying man, yet the CPS decided to drop the case?

Please help me understand how they were able to sack her then?

Story here.

You do realise the standards for sacking someone and the standards for finding someone guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal court of law are different, right?

No, if I'm honest I don't really understand.

I (wrongly it seems) assumed if there was enough evidence to sack her, there'd be enough to prosecute.

Because for a criminal conviction the CPS need to have enough evidence to meet a standard of proof of “beyond reasonable doubt”.

The evidence and standard of proof an employer would need to justify terminating someone’s employment in a disciplinary process is lower.

Surely it makes intuitive sense that you need stronger evidence to actually convict someone of a crime than to sack them for (presumably) misconduct.

The evidence and standard of proof an employer would need to justify terminating someone’s employment in a disciplinary process is lower.

Ahh ok thank you @Rudolphtherednoseddog. This is what I didn't realise.

I'm more surprised cps didn't press charges!!

A sign of the underfunded times we're living in I think.

The court costs would run into £10,000s and she would only get community service. She has been sacked and that's as good as it gets.

Other relatives complained of money going missing from patient's drawers.

A proper investigation might've shown up more.

If she is a registered nurse rather than an HCA this should have been referred to the NMC who would probably strike her off and she won’t be able to work as a nurse again.

The story just says 'nurse'.

Is it really in the public interest to prosecute? If sacked they will probably be disciplined by NMC and never be in that position of trust again.

I’m more surprised she was sacked by her trust

I've had an issue in work regarding a similar matter. The individual was sacked as there was more than 51% chance they stole - more than likely it was them. The legal advice was not to put forward for trial/conviction as evidence wasn't pushing over 90%. Its just different threshold OP

The press often refer to health care assistants as ‘nurses’. If she’s a registered nurse the disciplinary proceedings will be documented on the NMC Fitness to Practice section of their website. Initial proceedings may already be there-a registered nurse will have been suspended pending any criminal proceedings.

Ahh ok it makes more sense now.

Thanks all.

Would that stop her getting a job as a carer for example? No dbs info to warn other employers that she is not to be trusted.

They won't get a positive reference.

@maddening you don't need to be convicted for something to show on a dbs. You can be placed on the barred list for serious concerns that an employer reports. It's a high threshold for this form of barring but it is possible.

At least that is reassuring, there have definitely been cases of bad eggs being able to just move on but hopefully this provides some safeguard