Yannek Benson said he was ‘used to working in high stress situations and maintaining a level head’

Ambulances pictured outside Manchester Arena on the night of the attack(Image: Joel Goodman)

A paramedic who lied about being called out to Manchester Arena terror attack has been struck off. Yannek Benson’s CV claimed he was on duty on the night of May 22, 2017 when 22 people were killed by a suicide bomb following an Ariana Grande concert.

He even claimed the experience ‘taught me a lot about keeping my cool’. But in fact Mr Benson was completing his degree at the time and was not a registered paramedic.

It was one of numerous misconduct allegations that have now been upheld against Mr Benson and resulted in him being removed from the medical register.

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A Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service disciplinary tribunal heard Mr Benson’s ‘inaccurate and misleading’ CV included the claim: “I’m a very hard worker, I’m used to working in high stress situations and maintaining a level head. I was part of the response team sent to the Manchester bombings as a paramedic which taught me a lot about keeping my cool despite having stressful events occurring.”

A workmate, referred to as Colleague 11, told the hearing Mr Benson had made a similar false claim in June 2019 during a ‘really informal discussion over coffee’.

Mr Benson, the panel ruled, also lied about working as paramedic for the West Midlands Ambulance Service between 2015 and 2018, put patients at risk by completing consecutive 12 hour shifts without a rest, drove at speeds of more than 100mph despite not attending a ‘blue lights emergency’, disclosed confidential information that a colleague was under investigation and gave medication to patients ‘when it was inappropriate to do so’ among other allegations found proven.

In a letter to the panel Mr Benson, who did not attend the hearing, said he stopped working as a paramedic in 2020 and had ‘fully moved on from clinical practice and this chapter of my life’. He said he took ‘full responsibility’ for his ‘clinical errors in judgement’ but denied the allegations of dishonesty.

The HCPTS panel ruled Mr Benson, who at the time of the allegations was working for Milton Keynes-based Acute Ambulance & Medical Services, was guilty of serious misconduct and ordered he be struck off. In a written ruling they said fellow paramedics would find his claims to having worked during the Manchester terror attack ‘deplorable, given the significance of the incident and its wider impact on the profession’.

They added: “[Mr Benson] breached a number of fundamental tenets of the profession, committed repeated clinical failings and demonstrated a pattern of dishonest behaviour for the purpose of personal gain.”