Sarah Abogatal

Introduction

Sarah Abogatal is a nurse who was registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) — PIN 06F0455O, on the register since June 2006 — and worked as a Ward Sister at the Royal Marsden Hospital. On 16 January 2026, after a two-day virtual meeting, an NMC Fitness to Practise Committee panel found all five charges against her proved: receiving payment for Royal Marsden bank shifts she had not worked, “finalising” the claims with colleagues’ login credentials without permission, dishonesty in both, and failing to attend Croydon Magistrates’ Court in 2021 to answer a fraud charge, then made a striking-off order.

Background Information

The NMC referral came on 12 March 2019 from the Trust’s Divisional Clinical Nurse Director, after the Ward Matron — Abogatal’s line manager, Witness 1 — received a routine report on bank-shift working showing Abogatal working outside her standard 08:00–18:00 hours, checked the staff allocation book against the electronic health roster, and found a discrepancy.

The Trust’s investigation covered April 2016 to May 2018 and found that of 157 bank shifts Abogatal was paid for, there was evidence of work on only 23 — no evidence placed her on the other 134. The Trust estimated its loss at over £42,000 and concluded she had used colleagues’ login credentials to finalise the shifts for payment. NHS Counter Fraud and the Crown Prosecution Service authorised a charge: that between April 2016 and May 2018 she dishonestly abused her position as a Ward Sister expected to safeguard the Trust’s financial interests, intending to gain £38,981.09, contrary to sections 1 and 4 of the Fraud Act 2006. A second referral followed on 8 February 2023, after she failed to attend Croydon Magistrates’ Court on 17 August 2021 to answer that charge and a warrant was issued for her arrest without bail; the two referrals were joined. Abogatal has not engaged with the NMC since 2023, and the meeting went ahead in her absence.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings against Abogatal are regulatory findings made by an NMC panel on the balance of probabilities, not criminal convictions. She was charged with fraud by abuse of position, but the criminal case never reached a verdict: she did not attend court, and the last recorded step is a warrant without bail. She denied knowing about the payments — a denial the panel rejected as not credible — but accepted during the Trust investigation that she had not worked all the shifts.

On charge 1 — being paid for shifts she had not worked — the panel relied on health roster reports of every paid shift, ward allocation books, swipe-card and login records. On many of those days she sent no work email, never swiped in and never opened a patient record. Her claim that she never received payslips or checked her bank account did not survive: payslips had been sent to her address, she had once spotted £100 of fraudulent activity on her account, and in August 2018 she was asking colleagues to lend her money. The panel found she would have known she had not worked 132 of the 157 paid shifts.

On charge 2, three colleagues — Person 2, Person 3 and Person 4 — said Abogatal never had permission to log in as them, and one was on leave on many of the days the shifts were supposedly finalised under her login. One admitted sharing her credentials; another reused the same password everywhere after lending it for a different account; Person 2 later recalled Abogatal once asking her to log into the health roster. The panel found none of the three had authorised or finalised the shifts. Witness 1 described the end of the Trust’s internal disciplinary: “I heard Sarah admit and say that everything was true and she had let us down. She was crying at the time and said she was very sorry”. Charges 3 and 4 — dishonesty — were proved: using three colleagues’ credentials could not have been accidental. Charge 5 was proved by the court memorandum recording the warrant.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No press coverage of the case was located; the published record is the regulator’s own. The panel found Abogatal breached the NMC’s 2015 Code and described the totality of charges 1 to 4 as “a dishonest, premeditated scheme to acquire funds that she was not entitled to”, conduct that would be considered “deplorable by other registered nurses”. It noted the colleagues whose credentials she used would initially have come under suspicion themselves.

The aggravating factors were abuse of a position of trust, lack of insight, a two-year premeditated pattern, willingness to risk other nurses’ reputations, deep-seated attitudinal issues and dishonesty for financial gain. The only mitigation was personal, including financial hardship, which the panel gave little weight, calling the conduct a sophisticated, premeditated two-year pattern — dishonesty “at the top end of the spectrum”. It concluded her conduct was fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register and agreed with the NMC that nothing short of striking off would suffice.

Current Status

Abogatal was struck off by the decision dated 16 January 2026. As a striking-off order only takes effect after the 28-day appeal period, the panel imposed an 18-month interim suspension order; if no appeal is made, it is replaced by the striking-off order 28 days after the decision is sent to her in writing. MedicWatch’s profile records the outcome as erasure — struck off the register — decided 16 January 2026 and last verified September 2026; the published record shows no appeal. On the criminal side, the determination records no explanation for her non-attendance and nothing beyond the warrant without bail.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking-off ends Abogatal’s registration and forecloses lawful practice as a registered nurse in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds; none appears in the published record. The misconduct was attitudinal rather than a clinical failing, repeated over two years, with a complete absence of insight, remorse and remediation. The panel found a real risk of repetition and considerable risk of financial harm to employers, colleagues and patients. With the fraud charge unresolved and a warrant outstanding, the outcome closes her nursing career but not her legal exposure.

Sources

• NMC Fitness to Practise Committee, “Sarah Abogatal — Substantive Meeting, 15–16 January 2026” (decision and reasons), 16 January 2026 — source
• MedicWatch, “NMC strikes off Sarah Abogatal over dishonest bank-shift payment claims”, published 16 January 2026, updated 24 September 2026 — source
• MedicWatch, “Sarah Abogatal — Struck off the register | Nursing and Midwifery Council 06F0455O” — source