Nurse who smuggled drugs into Preston prison using hollow shoes is struck off nursing register

A prison nurse who used hollowed out shoes to smuggle drugs into HMP Preston has been struck off.

Keira Burton was convicted and sentenced to 20 months behind bars in March 2025, for her role in bringing cannabis, spice, ketamine, mobile phones and Sim cards into HMP Preston.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise panel ruled 36-year-old Burton’s actions were incompatible with her remaining on the register.

Burton, who became a registered nurse in 2013, was arrested in December 2023, when she was found in a van outside the prison with drugs, cash and a pair of shoes that had hollowed-out spaces in them.

Burton said her part in the smuggling operation was for a period of four months.

She was arrested on her last day at work in December 2023 and police discovered she had 16.4g of cannabis resin.

In her car and home, there was a stash of items ready to be smuggled into prison.

The panel noted that she had placed inmate patients who could have used the drugs at risk of harm.

It found that Burton acted "so as to put patients at unwarranted risk of harm".

She said she "fully accepted" that she had "lost a career that I loved and worked extremely hard for, for many years".

The judge in Burton's case, noting he had told her: "You have, in fact, rehabilitated yourself, but I keep coming back to your position in prison and the part that you played in this conspiracy and the onward supply was often done whilst you, Miss Burton, were engaged in your clinical duties.

"Your role in prison was to help vulnerable people, not to furnish them with poison that would accelerate their decline."

The panel determined Burton's criminal behaviour brought the nursing profession into disrepute.

In a statement to the NMC, Burton described her actions as ‘poor choices’.

She said: “I take full responsibility for my actions in this crime and fully understand that my behaviour and poor choices, whether through coercion or not, gave the NMC no option but to suspend my registration.

"In over a decade within the NHS I have never had a single complaint or issue raised about my practice prior to this, something which my professional and character references provided in January 2024 confirm.

She added: "I deeply regret my actions and that I have tarnished an otherwise perfect career and have associated the NMC with my actions, but I have also accepted that I will never again work within healthcare."

Burton, who said she had a new career outside of nursing, has 28 days to appeal against the decision.