A man faked having cancer to steal more than £500,000 to pay for his gambling. Peter Saad lied to a church-going friend that he had 'serious if not terminal' testicular cancer to trick him into paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund non-existent private treatment.
Saad, 33, produced faked cancer documents including MRI scans, reports, and consultant communications in what was branded a 'heinous' ruse. Abusing his status as a respected pharmacist, Saad swindled a total of £534,005.
The conman was eventually found out and admitted his had a gambling problem and that all the money was being used to pay off his debts. Now, the Nottingham-based pharmacist has been struck off the General Pharmaceutical Council [GPC] register following a tribunal.
"It is difficult to imagine a more heinous fraud than one predicated on feigning a cancer diagnosis", a GPC panel ruled. The tribunal heard Saad concocted a web of lies to the unnamed friend, who he knew through his church and was named only as 'Person A', from 2018 to 2019.
He tricked the man into sending him around £288,200 by claiming he purchased a pharmacy in the USA but it was 'seized by the US Government due to issues with his visa' and that he needed money with mortgage issues. Later, he feigned the cancer diagnosis, conning him into sending him a total of £127,150.
During a later period, Saad extracted £121,339 from a company Person A had involvement in after inviting him to set up a 'pharmaceutical warehouse' and business with him. But, his web of lies came crashing down when Person A made enquiries and it revealed invoices were faked.
A tribunal report said: "Following an investigation by Person A, Saad admitted that he had fabricated his stories... all with a view to securing funds to help with what Saad said were his debts and his gambling debts. Saad's father contacted Person A and told him that the claims made by Saad about his business in America and the cancer diagnosis were false and reported that Saad had a gambling problem."
Striking Saad off the register, the GPC panel said: "His behaviour in obtaining the advances under all three allegations was of the worst possible kind. The conduct was a planned in advance, with some complexity, and was designed to completely deceive Person A and Company A.
"He had used his position as a qualified pharmacist to raise funds from Person A and Company A... The Committee considered that the funds were likely paid to him on the strength of his status as a pharmacist."
Saad, pleading not to be struck off, claimed he 'was in the grip of a gambling addiction which effectively took over his life, but that he had now received treatment and help for that addiction and had recovered from it'. Last year Saad was jailed for 21 months at Chester Crown Court, Cheshire, after admitting fraud by false representation.
