A nurse cautioned by police after a fire started when she left her children home alone has been struck off the NMC register.

Margaret Oluwasere who worked for Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, received the caution for doing an act of cruelty to a child or young person, after the house fire accidentally started when she left her two young sons and her niece at her home alone in November 2011.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing was told last week the fire started while her eldest child was making toast and the toaster fell off the fridge and ignited.

The panel heard Oluwasere was later barred from working with children and vulnerable adults by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), but she failed to tell her employers about the ban for three months.

During a meeting on April 13, 2012, Oluwasere, who was responsible for the care of vulnerable adults, said she had not told the Trust because it took her a while to understand the consequences of the ISA's direction.

But the hearing heard she was fully aware of the seriousness and consequences as she appealed the ISA's decision.

Oluwasere failed to attend the hearing in Central London because she was not "prepared to sit in public and discuss her personal affairs," and was not represented.

The panel ruled her dishonesty meant her fitness to practice was impaired by her misconduct and struck her off the register.

Monica French chairwoman of the panel said Oluwasere's misconduct was "so serious as to be fundamentally incompatible with her continued registration with the NMC."