A Zimbabwean student who used a forged visa to fraudulently claim £23,000 of public money to train to be a nurse has had her prison sentence quashed.
Thandiwe Matikiti, who was given the funding to do a three-year course at Stirling University , was jailed for 14 months in October after she admitted the fraud.
The 32-year-old appealed the sentence on the grounds that it was excessive and she was a first offender.
At the High Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh , judges Lord Glennie and Lord Turnbull agreed and decided to admonish Matikiti.
They ruled it was an “exceptional” case and said she committed the fraud for a “worthwhile purpose”.
