Lawsuit claims B.C. hospital accepted doctored personal check as ID when hiring ‘fake nurse’

Brigitte Cleroux, who does not have a nursing degree, worked at B.C. Women's Hospital between June 1, 2020 and June 23, 2021 when she was fired over her false credentials.

New documents filed as a part of a proposed class action lawsuit allege administrators at a Vancouver hospital never sought government ID when they hired a now-notorious fake nurse.

Brigitte Cleroux, who does not have a nursing degree, worked at the B.C. Women’s Hospital between June 1, 2020 and June 23, 2021 when she was fired over her false credentials. Earlier this year she pleaded guilty to charges related to a similar scheme in Ontario.

A new filing related to the proposed suit against the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), which administers the hospital, makes startling allegations as to how Cleroux managed to get hired under the name of another, credentialed nurse.

Details of the filing were first reported by the CBC.

“Instead of receiving official government identification documents to confirm Cleroux was Melanie Smith, the Defendant accepted a photocopy of a personal cheque from Cleroux where she had whited out her name at the top of the cheque and hand wrote the name Melanie Smith, as confirmation of Cleroux’s identity as Melanie Smith,” the document alleges.

The document further claims that the employer failed to properly vet references included with Cleroux’s application, which allegedly only contained phone numbers and Gmail addresses, but no professional or business information.

The new allegations were among 31 admissions in the case that lawyers for the lead plaintiff had tried to get the PHSA to agree to ahead of a certification hearing for the lawsuit.

“We had hoped to have some admissions in place for the certification hearing. Those admissions were not made,” J. Scott Stanley, a lawyer for plaintiff Miranda Massie, told Global News.