A medical student who failed her final exams but spent seven months working as a hospital intern has been sentenced to two years in community detention.

Zhi Sin Lee failed six core subjects in the final year of her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of NSW in 2020.

But claiming she was under extreme financial and emotional pressure from her parents, who had spend $300,000 on her medical education, the 27-year-old successfully applied for an internship at Sydney’s Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital.

Within weeks of starting in January last year, she was seen to be underperforming and placed under additional supervision, but she eventually completed 126 shifts “risking lives of patients and staff”, the Downing Centre Local Court heard.