A mental health nurse who stole a vulnerable patient's bank card in a bid to fuel his gambling habit has been struck off.

Krishna Sinivassen was banned from working as a nurse by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on August 1 - more than a year after he was given a six month prison sentence by magistrates.

Sinivassen, who was employed by South West London and St George’s NHS Trust to work at Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton, admitted two counts of fraud and one of theft on December 7, 2009.

But he was not struck off until this week, after an NMC Conduct and Competence Committee Panel ruled he had "breached a fundamental tenet of the nursing profession" by stealing the debit card of a "seriously psychotic mental health patient" in a desperate attempt to get cash.

Sinivassen, who was described as a "good nurse in his 11 year career", did not attend the ruling, and the decision for him to be struck off - and be given an additional interim suspension order - was made in his absence.

The committee said: "As the magistrates stated when sentencing him to periods of imprisonment which amounted in total to six months, this was aggravated breach of trust, premeditated. They were crimes perpetrated against a vulnerable victim which he committed more than once.

"[The panel] recognises that he is full of remorse and that he has apologised. It acknowledges that his case is that the dishonesty was a consequence of a gambling addiction, but he has not attended the hearing to put before it any material, medical or otherwise, to support that proposition.

"Moreover his actions were deliberate. He knew that he should not have possession of the patient’s debit card, even to withdraw money for the patient at his own request.

"The registrant urges that he has addressed his problems by attending meetings and seeking help from friends and families, but there is no evidence to support this.

"The panel is minded to accept that gambling was the motivation here, but there is insufficient material to warrant the conclusion that this motivation has gone."

A spokeswoman for the NMC said Sinivassen had been subject to a temporary suspension order since February 4, 2010, meaning he could not work as a nurse in the months leading up to the panel's ruling.