A student nurse from Wirral dishonestly obtained £60,000 in NHS bursaries by falsely claiming to be a single mum while actually married to a serving soldier.

Annaliese Slater was awarded the money while studying at three different universities over a decade - and she never even qualified and deprived another would-be nurse of a training placement.

The mum-of-three had been handed a total of just over £111,000 in bursary payments though a court heard that if she had been honest she would have been entitled to almost half that amount.

An NHS official explained in a statement that they had lost a potential nurse and funded a place that could have gone to someone else, pointing out that there are only a certain number of nurses and bursaries available each year.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that when her dishonesty came to light Slater denied the allegations but she subsequently pleaded guilty to nine offences of fraud by false representation.

Sentencing her Judge Stuart Driver, QC said that a psychiatric report showed she was just short of having an unstable personality disorder and her traits include “an obsessive altruistic desire to nurse injured soldiers.”

She had obtained public money by fraud over a number of years, he said, but took into account that Slater, 45, who is no longer with her husband, is the sole carer for her school age children and is a hard worker who suffers from anxiety and depression.

He sentenced her to ten months' imprisonment suspended for 18 months and ordered her to carry out 25 days rehabilitation activities and 70 hours of unpaid work.

She also has to pay £500 towards the prosecution costs.

David Polglase, prosecuting, had told the court that Slater, of Ashlea Road, Birkenhead, began obtaining awards under the NHS student bursary scheme between February 2008 and January 2018 during which time she attended three universities.

She initially applied for a bursary to help her attend a four year part time diploma course in higher education in nursing at Bucks New University and claimed she was a single mum having separated from her husband.

She later transferred to a full-time course and submitted further annual applications for dependants allowance.

Despite her assertions about her status she went off on maternity leave in November 2009 and continued to receive the bursary, he said.

After returning in January 2011 she transferred to a BSc degree course and continued to receive payments for two years before applying to study at the Anglia Ruskin University in February 2015.

Later that year the NHS fraud investigators became involved after the Royal Military Police contacted them about Slater and her husband being in the process of separation and divorce.

Her then-husband told how they lived together in Army accommodation apart from a short separation in 2009.

When quizzed about this Slater claimed he was lying in his statement.

The defendant transferred to Chester University but the court heard she had failed to qualify because of issues of over the number of hours she had completed for placement and theory.

Defence counsel Martine Snowdon said Slater had had childhood issues but had “a genuine enthusiasm to become a nurse. She wanted to care for others.”

She had worked hard to improve her situation and that of her family despite long standing mental health issues. “This impacted on her ability to complete things in particular this nursing qualification.”

She was in the Army for several years and tried to qualify as a nurse in that employment.

She later became pregnant and married and again tried to qualify as a nurse, said Miss Snowdon.

Her mental health was exacerbated by worries about her husband’s dangerous job and loss of Army pals on active duty and she lived in fear of a knock on the door about her husband.

Her bursary claims started legitimately but became fraudulent after her family’s finances became desperate and she falsely claimed she was single.

Miss Snowden pointed out that she had been keen to qualify and while doing her nursing training she had worked hard on placements including in Accident & Emergency and intensive care which were pressured environments.

She now works for a Wirral charity which she originally joined as a volunteer.