A fantasist nurse who faked her qualifications to get a senior nursing job and lied about serving in Afghanistan has been told to repay just £278 of the £51,000 she swindled. 

Tanya Nasir, 47, fabricated degrees and experience to land a neonatal ward manager job at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, South Wales, where she was responsible for sick and premature babies.

The mother-of-two from Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, embellished her CV with a string of fake medical qualifications to get the role where she was paid more than £210,000 before being suspended in 2010.

Nasir then faked her job reference using a former colleague's NHS email and lied about previously working with charities such as Oxfam and the Red Cross, Cardiff Crown Court heard on May 7.

She even boasted about being shot while serving as a Major in the British Army in Afghanistan, but this was found to be a lie. Nasir's military career ended before it even began after she failed a basic fitness test.

The fantasist nurse fraudulently earned £51,397.58 by pretending to be a band seven nurse when she was only qualified to be a band five.

Band five refers to newly qualified nurses, while band sevens are senior specialists who are often expected to have a Master's degree.

Despite her earnings, Nasir had just £278 in her bank account at the time of her costs hearing, having been freed in January.

She has until August 6 to pay £13.91 to Hillingdon NHS Trust and £264.22 to Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.

If Nasir does not pay the £278 she will serve a month in prison and fraud investigators will track her down if her finances change. 

She denied fraud but was found guilty of all nine charges and was jailed for five years in July 2024.

Following her conviction Nasir was handed a striking off order at a nursing fitness to practise committee hearing on May 23 last year but didn't turn up.

Judge Richard Kember said: 'There was a risk for a catastrophic outcome for patients and staff.

'In my view, this went far beyond an acceptable level of talking yourself up for an application or embellishing proper experience.'