Fake doctor who worked for 20 years with forged diploma ordered to pay back £400K
A woman from the United Kingdom who worked as a psychiatrist for 20 years was ordered to pay back more than £400,000 or face additional jail time for forging her medical qualifications.
The 63-year-old fake doctor, named Zholia Alemi, is being ordered by the court to return £406,624 or over P30 million, for working as a National Health Service psychiatrist in hospitals in England, Wales, and Scotland, enjoying income and benefits worth over £1 million (over P98 million) for over 20 years.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, it was found that Alemi never held the medical qualifications required for the job. Per their report, the local police in Cumbria, England obtained evidence that she fraudulently obtained her medical qualifications she allegedly earned at the University of Auckland in 1995, to gain entry to the General Medical Council register.
According to a BBC report, the word "verify" in the certificate was misspelled, but she was nonetheless accepted at the GMC and was registered as a doctor.
"Alemi had dropped out of her university course after the first year. Registration with the General Medical Council enabled her to gain employment in various UK hospitals," the CPS said. They added that Alemi joined the medical register in the UK under a section of the Medical Act, which has not been used since 2003.
Alemi is currently serving her seven-year jail time since after being convicted in 2023 despite denying 20 offenses, including forgery. If she is not able to pay back the required sum, she will face an additional two and a half years.
"We have robustly pursued the proceeds of crime with the NHS Counter Fraud Authority and have identified all the assets that she has available to pay her order," CPS chief Adrian Foster said.
“Alemi had little regard for patient welfare. She used forged New Zealand medical qualifications to obtain employment as an NHS psychiatrist for 20 years. In doing so, she must have treated hundreds of patients when she was unqualified to do so, potentially putting those patients at risk," he added.
Alemi had been previously jailed for five years in 2018 for three fraud offenses, including forging the will of an 84-year-old, which would have allowed her to inherit the woman's bungalow and £300,000.
Following Alemi's conviction, Judge Hilary Manley called for an inquiry about how the GMC registered her as a doctor when the documents she submitted were "clearly false," the BBC reported.
The GMC had earlier apologized for its "inadequate" checks in the 1990s. They have also begun urgent inspection of about 3,000 foreign doctors working in the UK.
