A phoney plastic surgeon who operated on 28 people despite not having completed sixth form has been sentenced in a court in Romania for nearly four years.
Fake doctor Matteo Politi was handed three years and 10 months in jail by the Sector 1 Court in Bucharest after finding him guilty of fraud and intellectual forgery in January 2020.
Italian authorities attempted to appeal the decision but the Bucharest Court of Appeal were able to uphold the sentence on March 15.
Politi was accused of operating on 28 people in five private clinics in Romania despite not being authorised to practice medicine in the country.
Once the phoney surgeon realised an investigation into him was launched, he tried to flee Romania but was caught on a train near the border with Hungary in February 2019.
The Italian was detained for a period and then released on bail.
Politi had previously posed as a British plastic surgeon named Matthew Mode, it was later reported.
Posing as Mathew Mode, Politi ran a social media page under his name, where he posted photos and videos of himself performing operations.
Screenshots from his account show how he even offered breast augmentation.
According to his CV, he studied at UPMC Shadyside and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, both in the US.
In his CV, Politi has also made claims that he worked as a plastic surgeon in the UK, Italy, and Spain, but, in reality, he had not even completed sixth form.
Using a fake diploma from the University of Prishtina Faculty of Medicine in Kosovo, he managed to get approval from the Public Health Directorate of Bucharest.
He first raised suspicion when nurses spotted him struggling to put on his medical gloves and failing to wash his hands correctly before an operation.
The Prosecutor's Office attached to the Sector 1 Court said in a statement: "Between March 2018 and December 7, 2018, the defendant performed acts specific to the profession of plastic surgeon on 19 patients, in clinics within the municipality of Bucharest.”
The Prosecutor gave the final sentence stating: "Between March 2018 and December 7, 2018, the defendant misled nine injured persons as to his status as a specialist in plastic and aesthetic surgery and a doctor with the right to practise in Romania.
"Using a false name and performing acts specific to the status of plastic surgeon on them, thus obtaining an unjust patrimonial gain consisting of the sums of money paid by patients for the medical acts performed on them, amounting to approximately 13,880 Romanian Leu (£2,500) and 10,150 Euros (£8,900)," he added.
It is not clear how many patients were injured during their surgeries.
