A former NHS hospital chief executive has admitted falsifying his CV to land a #115,000-a-year post at a Midland trust.
Neil Taylor produced a bogus degree certificate purporting to be from the University of Nottingham in a bid to cling on to his job as head of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust.
Taylor, who resigned last October, entered guilty pleas when he appeared before magistrates in Shrewsbury yesterday to one count of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and one of attempting to commit the same offence.
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Taylor (42), of School Lane, Solihull, was granted unconditional bail to re-appear for sentence at Shrewsbury Crown Court on a date to be fixed.
John Snell, prosecuting, told the court Taylor had been the chief executive of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital before it merged with the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford in 2003.
Detailing the forger's successful bid to head the merged trust, Mr Snell added: "The untruths he had told were that he was a graduate (of the University of Nottingham) and he had a first degree, which he had not, and that he had a graduate diploma from the self-same university."
He also stated he was a graduate of the Institute of Personnel Development at Nottingham, despite the fact the university did not offer such a course.
The court heard that the deception came to light during a salary review.
Mr Snell said: "The authorities were pressing him to produce his degree certificate and qualifications from Nottingham University.
"He (Taylor) took the line 'They are on my aged parents' wall'."
The ex-NHS administrator then produced a certificate but it was quite clear from the nature of it that the logo was "made up".
Asking magistrates to commit the case to crown court, Mr Snell stressed that the offences were serious because of the amount of money Taylor had earned.
Defence solicitor Adrian Roberts said his client had landed the post because of the excellent reputation he built up while chief executive of Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.
Mr Roberts submitted: "He was led into making these assertions - on the one hand that he had got a first degree and on the other by producing a false certificate - because of the pressure that he was under from the hospitals merging."
Handing in glowing references from local people, hospital staff and members of his former Trust's management, Mr Roberts added: "He has lied because he was embarrassed about his lack of formal qualifications but he was perfectly capable of doing the job he was paid for."
