A nurse who falsely accused a taxi driver of rape has been given a lifetime ban from working in the profession.
Fiona Scanlan was struck off by her regulatory watchdog, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and cannot practise anywhere in the UK.
Their decision also means Scanlan is prohibited from being a nurse or nursing assistant in any EU country.
Under EU law, all 27 member states will be automatically told of the NMC ban.
The 41-year-old told police that William Millar had sexually assaulted her in the back of his cab.
But she was sentenced to 13 months in jail after she admitted fabricating her story.
Scanlan, of Yoker, Glasgow, did not appear for her disciplinary hearing at the NMC offices in Edinburgh and was given the permanent ban in her absence.
The hearing, which took place on August 18, was told that every effort had been made to contact Scanlan. But the shamed health worker had not replied to emails and letters informing her of the date.
An NMC disciplinary panel said she had shown no signs of remorse and continues to present a risk to members of the public.
Her actions in falsely accusing the driver of rape were also described during the hearing as “devious” and “underhand”.
Taxi driver William, 57, was arrested and held in custody for 18 hours after Scanlan made false rape claims against him in March 2014.
Scanlan – who has been released from prison – said he pulled into a secluded area and tried to rape her as he drove her home from a wedding at East Kilbride’s Crutherland House Hotel.
But a GPS tracking device fixed to his taxi showed the vehicle did not take that route and proved his innocence. Scanlan admitted fabricating the rape claim at Glasgow Sheriff Court last November.
The court heard Scanlan made the false claim after William ordered her out of his cab because she hurled drunken abuse at him.
Sheriff John McCormick said her behaviour could make it harder to prosecute future rape cases.
The NMC panel said in a written judgment: “Nurses occupy a position of privilege and trust in society and are expected at all times to be professional. Patients and their families must be able to trust nurses with their lives.
“Her actions, in lying to the police, brought the nursing profession into disrepute and, by her dishonesty and lack of integrity, breached a fundamental tenet of the nursing profession.
“A striking off order was the only sanction that would satisfy the public interest in the case. This order was necessary to maintain public confidence in the profession and send a clear message about the standard of behaviour required of a registered nurse.”
Scanlan is also facing a separate NMC probe into claims she administered the wrong drugs to vulnerable patients in centres in Glasgow and Lanarkshire last year. She allegedly gave the wrong pills to elderly patients, including ones with dementia and life-threatening conditions, up to four times a day.
The drugs allegations came to light in January after Scanlan was reported by a nursing agency where she worked.
Scanlan was freed from prison in February this year despite only serving three months of the 13-month term after she agreed to wear a tag. She has four weeks to appeal the ban.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nurse-who-falsely-accused-taxi-11060730
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EDINBURGH
A few years ago, a friend stumbled out of an Edinburgh pub in the wee hours of the morning.
Confronted with the prospect of a trek across the dark slopes of Arthur’s Seat, he and his drinking pals instead hailed a black cab.
When they climbed in, the driver sat in the front, as usual, and revved the engine. But then a puppet appeared over his shoulder and greeted them in a hoarse voice. “From the moment we entered the cab to the moment we got out, we didn’t stop laughing,” my friend remembers.
This story might sound like it was found at the bottom of a pint glass, but he was not alone. Extraordinary reports began to circulate online, and each was unique. One fare (as passengers are known in taxi slang) was encouraged to shout: “Gie’s a tune, driver,”at which point the cabbie produced a harmonica. Another likened his experience to watching a stand-up show.
One thing all the stories had in common was the cabbie’s name. A video clip posted online by a Taiwanese tourist shows the driver turn up the music, switch on flashing lights, play maracas and brandish a rubber skull.
“I’m kind of famous in Edinburgh,” he says as he drops them off. “You can tell everyone in Taiwan you’ve been in The Shuffler’s taxi.”
After hearing these stories, I, too, hoped to hail The Shuffler’s cab. But it never happened. Instead, I ended up with one gruff, grey driver after another. On my last visit to Edinburgh, I asked my cabbie about The Shuffler.
“Oh aye, Kenny,” he said. “All he wanted to do was make people laugh. But the council got him in the end. Revoked his licence.” It seemed The Shuffler had driven off the map.
“He’s just vanished,” one fleet manager told me.
But eventually, with the help of several cabbies, I got his mobile number.
Life had been tough for Kenny Taylor since he was forced to give up his taxi. Still, he looked back on his work with pride. Always a joker, he’d come up with the act after spotting the puppets in a shop window. “Timing is everything,” he told me. “Give the fares a wee Shuffle and they won’t forget the journey.”
Kenny got his nickname because of his “jiggy, jiggy” dance moves, but it was clear as we spoke it meant more to him than that. The Shuffler’s wise-cracking exuberance helped to battle Kenny’s depression – at least to a point. “You get people saying: ‘Hey, be The Shuffler.’ But you cannae be The Shuffler 24 hours a day.”
The way Kenny described “shuffling” was something between a shift in emotion and surprise. One time he asked a girl in the cab what she wanted to do when she grew up, and she replied smartly: “Be an adult.” He concluded: “The Shuffler had been shuffled.”
He told me he’d have to finish the conversation, because he had the dentist at 2.30. We said goodbye. It was only afterwards, when I repeated the phrase out loud, that I realised that I, too, had just been shuffled.
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TEXAS
A man filmed the moment a hawk wouldn't budge from his taxi cab as Hurricane Harvey barreled towards Texas.
As thousands evacuated the Houston area ahead of the Category 4 hurricane and others hunkered down, one hawk sought refuge in a car in Houston on Friday.
William Bruso was picking up supplies when he found the bird 'looking scared' as the animal sat with its wings tucked close to its side sitting in the car's passenger seat.
He named it Harvey the Hurricane Hawk and said: 'He just kind of hopped on in and doesn't want to leave. He seems to be scared. He doesn't know what's going on.'
Bruso brought the hawk home with him and continued to post videos with his new friend, but handed the bird over to the Texas Wildlife Rescue Center on Saturday.
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