A NURSE allegedly duped his partner into thinking he was a doctor for eight years before finally being found out.

Kevin O’Flanagan allegedly kept up the pretence he was a surgeon to his partner, her family and friends between 2006 and March 2014, even giving his job title as orthopaedic practitioner on their marriage certificate on September 4, 2010.

Former acquaintances told our sister paper, the Colchester Gazette, he initially told them he was a doctor but later they discovered he was a scrubs nurse at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford.

O’Flanagan, who lived in Colchester for several years until 2014, has been summoned to appear before the Nursing and Midwifery Council next month to answer 12 charges.

O’Flanagan, who also goes by the first name of Caven, allegedly kept up the pretence by writing a letter from a colleague, which offered him a fellowship in Cranio-Facial Maxillary Reconstruction Surgery with a special interest in general orthopaedic trauma in 2013.

However, the charges state he was not offered the job, and neither did it exist.

Instead, it is alleged he made up the offer in order to make others believe he had been offered the position.

The charges also state O’Flanagan lied on social media networking site LinkedIn, which connects people through their careers, by stating he was a clinical lead of head and neck surgery between April 2012 and April 2014.

The council alleges it was misleading as the job title refers to doctors and not nurses.

The nurse has lastly been charged with claiming, and being paid for, 42 hospital shifts between March 2013 and December 2013, when he had allegedly not actually worked them.

O’Flanagan was working at Mid Essex Hospital Trust when the offences are alleged to have taken place.

He will appear before the Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in London, starting on August 8. The hearing is expected to last for five days.

A spokeswoman for Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust said: “We can confirm that Mr O’Flanagan did work for the Trust, but due to the upcoming Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in August, we are unable to make any further comment at this time.”

She added O’Flanagan no longer worked for the trust but refused to say how his employment had come to an end or if he had ever been investigated over the claims. It is thought he left in December 2014.