At a quick glance, the everyday reader would think this is a normal degree certificate. Yet this is the document that a bogus psychiatrist created to forge her 20-year career.
Zholia Alemi falsified the certificate, along with a letter of verification riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, before submitting it to the General Medical Council (GMC) to register as a qualified doctor.
She was somehow accepted and over the last 20 years worked in various positions all over the country, including Manchester. Alemi is estimated to have fraudulently obtained over £1 million through the NHS.
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Following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court, Alemi was found guilty of 20 offences including two offences of forgery; two offences of using a false instrument; three offences of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception; and 13 offences of fraud by false representation.
On Tuesday (February 28) she was jailed for seven years as a judge blasted the GMC for an ‘abject failure of scrutiny’.
In the document, which has been shared with the Manchester Evening News, it shows a photocopy of the fake certificate. The date of the degree states ‘Fifth of May 1992’ which was incorrect as Alemi had failed the course, having only completed part 1 of the degree.
The court previously heard that the basic medical qualification and degree that all doctors must hold is ‘Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery’ (MBChB) and, without it, practitioners cannot be registered legitimately as a doctor. It requires successfully completing six years of intense study and all relevant exams to be passed before the qualification is rewarded.
According to official documentation from Auckland university, Alemi had enrolled in 1988 and completed her Bachelor of Human Biology, regarded as the first part of the course, in May 1992. She later enrolled on the MBChB and passed the first year, but failed the second and due to her performance, was not allowed to repeat the year, or complete the course.
This meant that she was never awarded the degree, never graduated as a doctor and why she went on to forge the degree certificate. This certificate falsely shows she had graduated in May 1992.
“She decided to achieve by forgery what she had failed to achieve by academic study,” prosecutor Christopher Stables told the court.
She went on to create a letter of verification which was found to have a number of spelling errors including the author being the ‘Faculty Regitrar’, who wrote to ‘varify’ she had completed six years of training with ‘satisfactory grade’.
In 2018 Alemi was sentenced for her attempts to defraud an 84-year-old patient, and following an investigation by journalist Phil Coleman, of the Cumbrian newspaper News and Star, it was discovered that Alemi had never completed the medical degree at the University of Auckland in New Zealand she claimed to have, and a police investigation was launched.
In 2019 police searched a home owned by Alemi in Omagh, Northern Ireland, and discovered a briefcase in a cupboard under the stairs containing part of a “forger’s kit”, including dry transfer letters from WHSmith and documents which were ‘practice versions’ of a forged certificate.
Alemi later went onto work as a psychiatrist and was admitted to the Royal College of Psychiatrists after passing the relevant exams. Prosecutors say her membership was ‘entirely bogus’ as a candidate must hold the MBChB qualification.
The GMC has since withdrawn her licence to practise as a doctor, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists terminated her membership within days of the forgeries coming to light.
Alemi, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, was jailed for seven years. A confiscation hearing has been set for later this year.
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