Man found wandering in the outback had impersonated a nurse, faked hospital jobs, police say

NICHOLAS Crawford was suffering from exposure when he was found walking along a remote stretch of highway. Police say he’s been living an extraordinary lie.

Nicholas Crawford being escorted by Police to Cairns to face charges from Alice Springs airport.

HE was supposed to be staying with his mum in Victoria, but by the time police caught up with Nicholas William Crawford, he was thousands of kilometres away, wandering along a remote stretch of highway between Alice Springs and Katherine in the Northern Territory outback.

Today, the 30-year-old accused impersonator is in Queensland, where he’ll face court charged with 115 offences, including an alleged rouse to land himself a $100,000 a year job.

Police say Crawford used fake documents then posed as a nurse at a clinic in Aurukun, Cape York, earlier this year.

It’s thought Crawford treated more than 160 people at the clinic. Though he had never performed intimate examinations, Crawford says he administered drugs, cleaned wounds and treated flu with Panadol during the six weeks at Aurukun.

He had no formal degree but “stated he had limited nursing knowledge due to both his parents being nurses and his partner being a student paramedic”, police allege.

He had also “done a lot of reading on the subject”, Crawford told police.

Crawford told police he had not expected to get the job and was more interested in moving to a remote community than becoming a nurse.

Nicholas Crawford, has been charged with fraud.

“The defendant stated if he had not been discovered that he would have left due to stress because he really did not know what he was doing,” police said in their court application to revoke bail earlier this week.

He is accused of assaulting patients through medical mistreatments during an eight-week stint at the Aurukun Primary Health Centre, the NT News reports.

It is alleged he gave babies injections and administered morphine among other things.

But that’s not all.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has brought three charges against Crawford in Queensland and 15 in Western Australia, where he worked in a remote hospital over two weeks last year.

Northern Territory police have also launched an investigation into claims he worked five shifts as an agency nurse in June 2014.

Crawford had been on bail and was ordered to stay at his mother’s home in Victoria when he was found on the outback highway last week. He had to be transported by the Royal Flying Doctor from the desert to Alice Springs Hospital, suffering effects from exposure and dehydration. Police say he had a mental illness for which he had not been receiving proper treatment.

Crawford was extradited to Cairns on Monday and is due to front court today.

For help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.