Farrah Ayub
Introduction
Farrah Ayub is a former registered nurse whose name was removed from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register on 26 August 2026, when a review panel replaced her three-month suspension with an immediately effective striking-off order. She had been registered as an adult nurse (level 1) since 26 September 2011 and, from 3 September 2016, held V300 qualification as a nurse independent/supplementary prescriber, with Hove recorded as her relevant location.
Her removal followed admitted dishonesty in job applications. In or around February 2020 and again in July 2023, she presented a health care assistant as her “Nurse Manager” referee to prospective employers. A panel suspended her for three months in May 2026, but the review panel struck her off after finding she had knowingly worked as a nurse while suspended.
Background Information
Ayub practised on Sub Part 1 of the NMC register under PIN 11H0907E, which recorded the adult nurse (level 1) part from 26 September 2011 and the V300 nurse independent/supplementary prescriber annotation from 3 September 2016. The NMC classified the case as one of misconduct.
The striking-off decision came at the first review of a substantive suspension order imposed for three months on 15 May 2026 and due to expire at the end of 15 September 2026. The review opened as a virtual hearing on 26 August 2026, chaired by lay member Oluwasola Falola; Ayub attended, represented by Arthur Lo of the Royal College of Nursing, while case presenter Raj Joshi appeared for the NMC.
At the outset, Ayub applied under Rule 19 of the NMC’s Fitness to Practise Rules 2004 for parts of the proceedings concerning her personal matters to be heard in private, an application the NMC supported. The panel agreed to go into private session when those matters were raised, and that private material is not published.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The charges below were proved by Ayub’s own admissions to the NMC panel; the findings are regulatory findings, not criminal convictions.
The charges found proved by way of admission concerned false employment references. In or around February 2020, Ayub provided the details of Person 1, named in the determination as Ms Ali, to Prospective Employer 1 as an appropriate person to give a reference when she knew Ms Ali was not, and told that employer Ms Ali was a Nurse Manager when she was in fact a Health Care Assistant.
The pattern repeated three years later. On 21 July 2023, Ayub emailed Prospective Employer 2 offering Ms Ali as a referee while supplying her own email address as Ms Ali’s point of contact, and on or around 24 July 2023 she submitted a reference describing Ms Ali as a Nurse Manager that also contained inaccurate details about her own and/or Ms Ali’s employment.
A fourth charge, that this conduct was dishonest in that she intended to mislead, or misled, the employers into believing Ms Ali had been her manager in order to secure employment, was also found proved by admission. Applying the Grant test, the substantive panel found no evidence of concerns about her clinical competence and no evidence of actual patient harm, so the patient-risk limb was not engaged; it nevertheless found breaches of the limbs covering public confidence, the fundamental tenets of honesty and integrity, and admitted dishonesty, and considered her motive may well have been self-preservation given the circumstances surrounding her personal life.
The review panel then heard of the suspension breach. The NMC told the panel that Ayub had knowingly practised as a nurse prescriber while suspended over a period of six weeks; her representative admitted two nursing shifts in July 2026, and the panel found, on the basis of her admissions, that she knowingly practised while suspended on 6 and 17 July 2026, including clinical work and prescribing, within three weeks of her practice being restricted.
The timing weighed heavily. Her reflection dated 26 July 2026 was written after the breaches and did not mention them, and she addressed them only in a second reflection of 24 August 2026, after the organisation she was working for had discovered them. The panel found “a significant disconnect between your stated insight and your subsequent behaviour”.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The panel found Ayub’s fitness to practise remained impaired, now on the grounds of public protection as well as public interest. It held that her original dishonesty had been compounded by the further dishonesty of working for an employer when she was not entitled to, for personal gain, and treated the deliberate breach as a significant aggravating factor — deliberate, involving financial benefit, and resulting in clinical work with no lawful authority to practise, factors the NMC’s sanctions guidance identifies as relevant to the seriousness of dishonesty.
Mitigation was acknowledged but given limited weight. The panel noted her engagement with the proceedings, her training certificates and a testimonial from her general practitioner, Dr Riaz Gulab, and accepted that the misconduct was out of character and that the abusive relationship she was in was a significant causal factor. Against this, it found the learning had not translated into sustained behavioural change, considered the breach indicative of deep-seated attitudinal concerns, and determined she was liable to repeat matters of the kind found proved; while no actual patient harm was found, her practising while suspended had created a potential risk to patients.
Current Status
The panel determined that a further suspension would serve no useful purpose and that only a striking-off order would adequately protect the public and serve the public interest. Although the hearing had commenced as a standard review, at which a change of order would ordinarily take effect at the end of the existing suspension, the panel used its exceptional-circumstances powers under guidance REV-2C and directed that the striking-off order take immediate effect in accordance with Article 30(2) of the Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001, replacing the suspension.
Striking off removes a practitioner from the NMC register, so Ayub can no longer practise as a registered nurse or prescriber in the UK.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The order ends a nursing career spanning registration from September 2011 and, from 2016, practice as a nurse independent/supplementary prescriber. The substantive panel had accepted that even the three-month suspension would inevitably cause hardship, outweighed by the public interest; the review panel, finding a real risk of repetition and continuing concerns over honesty, integrity and regulatory compliance, concluded it was necessary to take action to prevent her from practising in the future.