Police warned government over fraud linked to poison-nurse

Filipino nurse Victorino Chua managed to slip through UK nursing regulations with what police believe were fake qualifications.

The 49 year old arrived from Manila in 2002 and was allowed to walk into NHS hospitals with only photocopied papers.

He was today found guilty of murdering two patients and poisoning 19 others at Stepping Hill hospital in Manchester in 2011 and 2012.

Police discovered he had been thrown off his degree course in Manila for selling prescription forms to patients.

He then studied at the dubious Galang medical school in the Philippines capital, which has now shut down.

Police say that it is a dubious training centre.

Channel 4 News understands that police were so concerned about people employed in the same way as Chua that they wrote to four government departments including the Department of Health and the Foreign Office.

In the letter the police say that there were “significant opportunities for fraud in the qualification process for nurses in the Philippines”.

The Department of Health has yet to respond.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told the jury that father of two had taken out his personal frustrations “for reasons truly known only to himself”.

Evidence produced by the prosecution included a letter by Chua in which he said he was “an angel turned into an evil person” and that “there’s a devil in me”.

Chua had pleaded not guilty to murder and all 36 charges. He will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Follow Simon Israel on Twitter: @simonisrael