A woman who faked her CV landed a job as an NHS radiographer.

Martha Kirkwood-Rhinds worked in Teesside hospitals for nearly a year in the £38,000 job before being exposed.

Yesterday, the 27-year-old, of Rudyard Avenue, Roseworth, Stockton, was jailed for 12 months after she pleaded guilty to obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and three charges of forgery.

Judge Michael Taylor told her she had to be jailed to reassure the public.

Last night, Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: "This highlights a failing in the system. Why were references not taken up? Why did it take a year to discover what was going on?"

The NHS Counter Fraud Service said: "We will not tolerate actions such as this."

Jenny Shepherd, chairwoman of the South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust Patient and Public Involvement Forum, said: "We will be seeking assurances from the trust that steps will be taken to ensure patient safety is not compromised in this way again."

Sue Covill, of South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We want to reassure people that patient safety was not compromised in any way and senior staff always supervise newly-qualified radiographers during the course of their work.

"Employing properly qualified and trained staff to protect patients' safety and well-being is our priority. This has been a very unfortunate case and lessons have been learned from this."

Kirkwood-Rhinds applied for a post in April 2003, saying she had taken a degree in diagnostic radiography at Bradford University.

When she began work in July, she said she had an honours degree and was a member of the Health Professionals Council. But she had forged all her qualifications.

She also forged an application to Bradford University when she was kicked off a course at Teesside University.

Peter Sabiston, mitigating, said: "She had a burning desire to be a radiographer, but greed was not the primary motivating factor. She was not able to cope with the failure of a degree, and she lacked the realisation of her own shortcomings."

Judge Michael Taylor told her: "You were not fit to act as a radiographer, and the fact that no person came to any mischief is a matter more of good luck than anything on your part."