Student takes law into her own hands
Student takes law into her own hands
London: A law student used a fake identity to get a £3,200 (Dh19,000) breast enlargement operation for free, a court heard.
Nina Burmis, 19, who had her chest boosted, also tried to get a mortgage for a £77,500 house using false details.
On Friday, her hopes of a career in law were in ruins after she was given a suspended prison sentence for fraud.
Burmis won a place at Hull University to study law, despite two previous shoplifting convictions.
But she was unwilling to accept the financial limits of life as a student and soon began to live beyond her means. In November last year, using the assumed name Jayne Ladylock, Burmis arranged the breast enlargement at a clinic in Hull. Prosecutor Nick Adlington said Burmis handed over a £500 cheque as a deposit. Although the cheque bounced, she had the surgery in Manchester last year before suspicions were aroused.
Clinic staff called police in when the second-year undergraduate missed her post-operative check.
At the same time Burmis was involved in an equally brazen mortgage sting for a house in Hull. She claimed to be working full-time for a construction company, providing a forged reference and payslip in an attempt to get a mortgage from the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society.
She handed over a £5,900 deposit cheque to estate agents, knowing the bank account had been closed and it would be rejected. Unsurprisingly, her con quickly unravelled and checks revealed she had never worked for the firm.
Burmis pleaded guilty to three fraud charges relating to the cosmetic surgery and house purchase bid. Sentencing Burmis at Hull Crown Court, Judge Michael Mettyear gave her a nine-month prison term, suspended for 18 months, and ordered her to do 200 hours supervised unpaid work, adding: "You can still regard yourself as lucky. Many other judges would have sent you to prison straight away."
Given the nature of her convictions it will now be impossible for Burmis to pursue a career as a solicitor or barrister, said a local Law Society representative.
