An Alyth woman could be facing jail after she lied to NHS bosses about the death of her father who was later tracked down by an investigator.
Fiona Gillen, 45, was paid for compassionate leave from Kings Cross Hospital in Dundee after claiming Patrick Gillen died in March 2011.
Gillen, of High Street, Alyth, admitted two charges of obtaining money by fraud from NHS Tayside between March 9 and April 22 2011.
Sheriff George Way deferred sentence until next month.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard she asked Scottish Bowel Screening Centre supervisor Linda Brownlee for paid leave to attend the funeral.
Admin worker Gillen then told her boss she was suffering from stress as a result of bereavement and obtained a doctor’s certificate to support her story.
Gillen kept the pretence up for more than a month before her ploy was discovered in April 2011.
A source said: “Eventually red flags were raised and an investigation was launched. There was no record of a Patrick Gillen dying in the Ipswich area, as she had claimed.
“An investigator managed to track him down and he said he hadn’t seen Fiona for over 18 months before this all happened.”
Gillen was later dismissed and now works as a housekeeper.
David Sinclair, defending, said: “There are matters outstanding and I’d ask the case to be continued four weeks to resolve them.”