A fake psychiatrist has been jailed after forging a fake degree certificate and submitting it to the General Medical Council who have since admitted that ‘rigorous checks’ were not carried out.
Zholia Alemi, who is believed to be in her 60s, forged the document, along with a letter of verification and handed it to the GMC, the public body responsible for maintaining the official register of general practitioners in the UK.
Alemi, who is already convicted of fraud, ‘held herself out and practised as a doctor of medicine’, though she had never passed or achieved the relevant university qualification and was not a properly qualified doctor.
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Prosecutors described her as ‘the most accomplished fraudster’. After being found guilty of 20 offences including forgery, using a false instrument and fraud, she was jailed for seven years.
The judge previously asked for an explanation from the GMC, who responded in a statement which read: “In the 1990s this document was not subject to rigorous checks now in place and it’s clear the process almost three decades ago was inadequate. 27 years on, the GMC system is much more robust.”
Prosecuting, Christopher Stables said Alemi falsified two documents: a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Auckland, more commonly abbreviated to MBChB dated 1992; and a letter of verification written by the Faculty Registrar at the university, based in New Zealand.
She applied for registration to be a doctor in the UK using the ‘Commonwealth Route’ through the GMC using these falsified documents and then obtained work either through the NHS or recruitment agencies, in various positions ranging from locum positions to permanent posts.
“She was so registered. Thereafter the defendant practised continuously in a very large number of posts both in the NHS and private healthcare providers from literally one end of the country to another,” he said.
“These were paid positions. All of these positions and income were obtained on a basis fraudulently presenting that she was a full and properly qualified doctor.
"She is estimated to have fraudulently obtained between £1.1million and £1.3million.”
Alemi failed her degree
The court 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 legitimately advance further or be regarded as a doctor. It requires successfully completing six years of 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.
The letter of verification 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 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, of Burnley, 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.
Alemi's lie began to unravel in 2016 when a carer reported concerns about her attempts to defraud an elderly patient and she was convicted of three fraud offences at Carlisle Crown Court.
The 84-year-old woman was ‘targeted’ by Alemi and of her £1.3million in her will, just £10,000 remained. Alemi had sent the remaining funds to her family in the United States.
Journalist Phil Coleman, of Cumbrian newspaper News and Star, who covered the court case, went on to discover 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.
Mr Stables said court proceedings had “come about as a direct result of the persistence of Mr Coleman’s investigative journalism”.
Judge slams 'abject failure of scrutiny'
Mitigating, her barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC said: “Prison for someone with her characteristics is particularly onerous.”
He added that her family lives abroad and her social ties are ‘non-existent’.
The court heard she had also written a letter to the sentencing judge indicating grounds for an appeal.
Sentencing her, Judge Hilary Manley said: “The quality of the spelling, grammar and printing in that document [the letter] should have alerted even the most casual reader that something was very much amiss, but, for whatever reason, it appears even the most basic checks, such as a telephone call or letter to the School of Medicine, which would have confirmed immediately that the Registrar named in the letter was no longer in post, and that in any event you had not completed your degree, were not carried out.
“That the degree certificate and supporting letter were accepted by the GMC represents an abject failure of scrutiny.
“You benefited from that failure and of course from your own deliberate and calculated dishonesty.”
She said there was ‘grave concern’ as she was approved under section 12 of the Mental Health Act, which allowed her the power to detain patients against their will, and to prescribe ‘powerful, dangerous drugs’.
She also said that Alemi’s ‘autism’ did not preclude her being ‘highly manipulative and cunning’.
Speaking of the impact of the case, Judge Manley said: “A prolonged and serious financial impact on NHS Trusts in particular, as well as other healthcare providers, and the offences have doubtless led to a loss of trust and confidence in the NHS and other healthcare providers. Patients reading about this case may well have a nagging concern about the medical professional in whose care they are being asked to place their trust.”
Alemi, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, was jailed for seven years. She wept as she was led down to the cells.
The judge raised concerns about the GMC’s scrutiny of Alemi’s documents, and detailed their response in which they admitted that ‘rigorous checks’ were not carried out, which was ‘inadequate’ at the time.
She called for an open inquiry as to how Alemi could submit ‘so clearly’ a false document in support of the application without basic checks, why it took a journalist to uncover the truth about her deception rather than professional governing bodies and why a representative of the GMC provided evidence at the trial not in record with the submission that scrutiny was inadequate and non rigorous.
Speaking after the sentence, Detective Superintendent Matt Scott, the senior investigating officer in the case, said: “This was a highly unusual case which involved a skilled fraud carried out and maintained over a number of years.
“Alemi is a manipulative criminal who fraudulently obtained a critical health care role which involved important responsibilities about people’s lives – despite never having obtained the most fundamental qualification to start her career.
“I would like to thank the work of the News & Star’s journalist Phil Coleman for his diligence covering this case and his initial enquiries, which he immediately passed onto us.
“I would also like to pay tribute to my team of dedicated detectives, the NHS CFA team, and our prosecution team at the CPS for their extensive work in putting together a watertight case to place before the court and ensure justice is served.
“I would also like to thank the cooperation of the various health partners in the NHS, GMC and more, who we have liaised with during the course of this investigation and have been invaluable in helping us to reach the stage we are today on conviction, and to ensure Alemi will never again be able to call herself a ‘doctor.’ “
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