OTTAWA, Apr 23 — A Canadian woman who spent decades impersonating nurses and other professionals by using fake identities was sentenced today to seven years in prison for fraud.

Brigitte Cleroux, 50, was arrested in Ottawa last August after her latest deceit was discovered by a colleague seeking to file a complaint against her with a governing body for nurses and an imposter alert popped up.

She pleaded guilty in January to seven offenses including impersonation and assault with a weapon — for administrating medication and injections to 20 patients at a fertility clinic and a dental clinic.

Ontario Court Justice Robert Wadden was quoted by public broadcaster CBC as saying her fraud struck "at the core of the trust our society puts in our health-care system.”

Minus credit for time spent in detention awaiting trial, Cleroux must serve five years and eight months in a federal penitentiary, her lawyer told AFP.

Cleroux had reportedly committed similar frauds throughout her adult life, using forged resumes and fake identity cards with dozens of aliases and accumulating a long criminal record.

When found out, she would sometimes disappear before she could be held accountable. 

Cleroux still faces prosecution on separate charges of having posed as a nurse at a British Columbia hospital for a year.

Several patients have also launched a lawsuit against the British Columbia health authority for failing to verify her nursing credentials when employing her. — AFP