Aiwanehi Sandra Aigbokhaevbo

Introduction

Aiwanehi Sandra Aigbokhaevbo is a dietitian who was struck off the register of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) in March 2026 after a Conduct and Competence Committee panel found that she had used artificial intelligence or other assistive technology to answer clinical questions during a job interview with an NHS hospital, and had then passed the responses off as her own work. The panel found the use of the technology was dishonest, amounted to misconduct, and left her fitness to practise impaired. The case, heard remotely over four days, ended with a Striking Off Order removing her from the register she had joined as a dietitian, and an interim suspension covering any appeal period.

Background Information

Aigbokhaevbo was registered with the HCPC as a dietitian, the regulated profession that assesses and treats patients through nutrition, and was based in Nigeria at the time of the events. In March 2024 she applied for a Band 5 Oncology Dietitian post at Royal Surrey County Hospital, a role at the entry grade for registered dietitians in the NHS Agenda for Change structure. The interview was to be conducted remotely over Microsoft Teams, with the panel sitting at the hospital while she joined from abroad. The interview panel comprised the hospital’s Head of Service for Dietetics and Speech and Language Therapy, a Macmillan Oncology Dietitian who led the oncology team, and a Surgical Oncology Dietitian.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated finding, not an allegation. A HCPC Conduct and Competence Committee panel found the particulars proved on the balance of probabilities in March 2026. The findings are a civil-standard regulatory determination, not a court conviction, and no criminal charge was involved in the record covered here.

On 13 March 2024 Aigbokhaevbo attended the remote interview for the oncology dietitian post. All three interviewers formed the view that she was using artificial intelligence to answer their clinical questions. They cited her pattern of repeating questions back and stalling before answering, speech that was more eloquent than her general conversation, answers that sounded as if she was reading from something, eye movements consistent with reading from another screen, and responses with a “textbook” quality. She was also asked to complete a written case study afterwards, and the panel again concluded that she had used the technology: the answer was more detailed than a band 5 dietitian of her experience would produce, included UK-specific guidance knowledge that would not be expected, and spelled out terminology in full where acronyms are standard, despite a 45-minute time limit. One interviewer afterwards entered the case study and one of the questions into ChatGPT and noted significant similarities between the chatbot’s answers and Aigbokhaevbo’s, in both form and substance. The HCPC alleged that her conduct in doing so was dishonest, because she sought to pass off the responses as her own, and that this amounted to misconduct impairing her fitness to practise. The panel agreed, and after weighing the sanction options concluded that striking off was required.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel’s sanction analysis recorded that a striking off order is a sanction of last resort, appropriate where the nature and gravity of the concerns mean any lesser sanction would be insufficient to protect the public, public confidence in the profession, and public confidence in the regulatory process. The panel noted that it took full account of the financial and other hardship the order would cause her, but concluded that the need to protect the public and the wider public interest had to take priority over her interests. The Registrar was directed to strike her name from the register, and the decision was published on the HCPTS hearings site, the tribunal service that publishes HCPC outcomes. No separate criminal proceedings were part of this case; the dishonesty was conduct found by the regulatory panel, not a charge or conviction before a court.

Current Status

Aigbokhaevbo was struck off on 26 March 2026, the final day of the four-day hearing held by video conference. The striking off order removes her from the HCPC register, which means she cannot practise as a registered dietitian in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds. As with all HCPC striking off orders, an interim order covers the window in which she could appeal. The panel’s decision, including its findings on the interview, the case study, the ChatGPT comparison and its sanction reasoning, is published in full on the HCPTS website.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The order ends her prospects of holding the NHS post she interviewed for and removes her registration entirely, not merely restricts it. The case is an early and concrete example of a UK health regulator treating interview cheating with generative tools as disqualifying dishonesty rather than a technique issue, and it sets out the evidentiary chain regulators can use: panel observations of reading behaviour, comparisons of expertise-level answers against the grade applied for, and a direct ChatGPT comparison against the submitted case study. For overseas-qualified applicants to NHS allied-health posts, it shows that remote interviewing practices are being actively probed and that deception discovered at application stage can end a registration before a career has even started.

Sources

• HCPTS, “Aiwanehi Sandra Aigbokhaevbo — Final Hearing, Conduct and Competence Committee, Struck off,” March 2026. source