A SOUTHAMPTON nurse is today behind bars after defrauding the NHS out of thousands of pounds.

Marion McGinnis claimed hundreds of hours of overtime she had not worked as a senior ward nurse at Southampton's Royal South Hants Hospital.

At Southampton Crown Court this morning the 35-year-old sobbed in the dock as she was sentenced to four months in prison.

Between March 1999 and October 2002 McGinnis, of Shirley, who is married with a four-year-old daughter, regularly amended time sheets used to work out her pay, cheating the NHS out of at least £5,000.

She was found guilty of five sample charges of false accounting, by majority verdicts, and was cleared of a further six.

Tim Concannon, defending, told the court that McGinnis was "someone who is dedicated and is good at what she does".

"She is someone that this has had a devastating effect on," he said.

"It is something she will bitterly regret all her life."

Appealing to the judge to consider a non-custodial sentence, he said: "It is not just the defendant who suffers, it is her husband and her four-year-old daughter."

He added that McGinnis had borrowed sufficient money to repay the £5,000 and to pay costs of £5,000.

Sentencing McGinis to four months concurrent for each count, Judge John Boggis QC, said: "The overtime system was based on trust and honesty. You abused that trust from a position of significant responsibility.

"You were the ward manager. You were to set an example, not manipulate the system for your own gain.

"You deprived the NHS of its scarce resources."

Judge Boggis told McGinnis that he took into account the punishment she has already suffered.

"You have been dismissed. You have lost your good name and maybe you won't work in the NHS again," he said.

He added that he took into account the needs of her daughter, a letter from her sister and further letters of support from her current employers - St John's charity in Winchester - and the father of one of her former patients.

But he said he was also mindful of the facts - that it was a sustained fraud, conducted over a period of time, that she was in a position of responsibility and that a "hard-pressed public body" was the victim.

"I am satisfied that only a custodial sentence is appropriate," he said.

"I bear in mind that you lost your best mitigation when you decided to plead not guilty."

McGinnis, who sobbed uncontrollably as she was led away, was also ordered to pay £5,000 compensation and a further £5,000 costs.

A spokesman for the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service said after the case this morning: "The prosecution of Ms McGinnis is an example of the tough approach taken by the NHS to tackle fraud.

"She stole money meant for the care of vulnerable patients which cannot be tolerated. She has shamed herself and her profession."