Aberdeen support worker struck off for accepting £7,000 from ‘vulnerable’ man who thought she wanted relationship

Faith Njoku's behaviour was described as "premeditated" and "deliberate" by the Scottish Social Services Council.

By Cameron Roy

March 22 2023, 12:46 pm

The Raigmore patient has had her treatment halted half-way through her course of chemotherapy. Image: Shutterstock.

An Aberdeen support worker has been struck off after accepting £7,000 from a service user who thought she wanted a relationship.

Faith Njoku deceived the “vulnerable” man, known as AA, between August 1 2020 and August 29, 2020, while she was working at H1 Healthcare Solutions in the city.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) heard that Ms Njoku caused AA to believe she wanted to be in a romantic relationship with him, and later accepted about £7,000 from him.

The watchdog also heard that on August 29 2020 she told the man if he wanted to see her again he would have to come up with more money.

They ruled Ms Njoku caused the man caused “emotional harm” as a result, and described her behaviour as “premeditated” and “deliberate”.

In their findings, the SSSC ruled that Ms Njoku’s actions towards AA were made due to “financial motivation”.

This constituted a “misuse of power and position” and an “abuse of the trust” placed in her.

Changed her name to ‘deliberately’ hide suspension

It also emerged that she registered to work in Glasgow and Edinburgh – by changing her name from Faith Chikodi Njoku to Chikodi Faith Njoku – despite being temporarily suspended at the time.

The SSSC described her behaviour as dishonest as she “deliberately sought to conceal” from the company that her registration had been suspended.

Her actions prevented her employer from “accurately assessing” whether she “posed a risk to the health and wellbeing of vulnerable people”.

And because of the need for social service workers to be “truthful, open and honest”, it was found her behaviour was in “serious breaches of fundamental tenets of the
profession”.

Concerns were raised that there was a “risk of repetition” of her behaviour as Ms Njoku has not demonstrated any regret.

It was noted she had no previous history of misconduct with the SSSC and cooperated with the investigation.

However, due to the serious nature of her misconduct the panel has removed her from the SSSC register permanently.

H1 Healthcare Solutions has been approached for comment.