A bogus psychiatrist has been convicted of a "deliberate and wicked deception" after faking a medical degree certificate and working for a number of health trusts.
Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist across the UK, including in Scotland, after claiming to have qualified at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Manchester Crown Court was told. In 2019 we revealed that records were being reviewed of patients across Scotland who received treatment from the fake psychiatrist.
In one case, a man who was treated by Alemi at Ayr’s Ailsa Hospital in 2008, said her behaviour set alarm bells ringing and he raised concerns with health chiefs. But Alemi accused the man of being paranoid and even tried to get his daughter taken out of his care.
It also emerged that another of Alemi’s patient planned to sue NHS Ayrshire and Arran over their failure to check her qualifications. The patient claims he was put on powerful medication by Alemi while she worked at the hospital in Ayr.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran confirmed she was registered with the General Medical Council before employing her as a locum psychiatrist for 16 months in 2007 and 2008 and they apologised for any distress the situation had caused.
On Wednesday, she was told she faces a prison sentence "of some substantial length" after she was found guilty of 13 counts of fraud, three counts of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two counts of forgery and two counts of using a false instrument, following a four-week trial.
Judge Hilary Manley remanded Alemi in custody and told her she will be sentenced at the same court on February 28. Judge Manley told her: "There is only one possible sentence and that will be a sentence of immediate custody of some substantial length."
She said it was a "deliberate and wicked deception" perpetrated against a number of health authorities. The judge said the deception allowed Alemi to work in positions which involved "potentially very vulnerable people over a long period of time" and described the offending as "very grave".
She told the court that, before sentencing, she wanted to know "how it was this defendant was able to practise as long as she was, in so many positions". The court heard that Alemi had earned between £1 million and £1.3 million from the NHS after she sent the forged certificate to the General Medical Council (GMC) to register to practise in 1995.
She was also accused of sending a forged letter of verification, which the court heard had verify spelt as "varify" and referred to "six years medical trainee with satisfactory grade". Christopher Stables, prosecuting, said Alemi is believed to be 60, although the court heard that she had three different dates of birth on documents.
Opening the case, he told the jury: "She is, say the prosecution, a most accomplished forger and fraudster, but has no qualification that would allow her to be called, or in any way to be properly regarded as, a doctor."
The jury was told Alemi had been convicted of three fraud offences at Carlisle Crown Court in 2018 after forging a will to make herself the beneficiary and forging powers of attorney. She was sentenced to five years in prison after re-drafting the 84-year-old woman's will.
Following her first conviction, the GMC apologised for "inadequate" checks made in the 1990s and for "any risk arising to patients as a result".
Alemi, of Plumbe Street in Burnley, denied forging her degree certificate, telling the jury she did not fail any exams in the six-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery course.
The court heard that university records showed Alemi, who was born in Iran, was stopped from re-enrolling at the university in New Zealand after failing a number of years. She claimed she had moved from her home country to New Zealand after she and her family were tortured following the Iranian revolution.
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