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CUMBRIA POLICE/Supplied
Zholia Alemi pretended to have a degree from Auckland University and posed as a doctor in the UK for 19 years.
A Kiwi woman who posed as a doctor in the United Kingdom for nearly two decades, taking about $2 million from British taxpayers, has been found guilty of committing a “deliberate and wicked deception”.
Zholia Alemi, who is believed to be 60, worked in hospitals as a psychiatrist across Britain after forging a degree certificate from the University of Auckland.
This week, Alemi was found guilty of 13 charges of fraud, three charges of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two charges of forgery and two charges of using a false instrument after a trial at the Manchester Crown Court.
Judge Hilary Manley remanded Alemi in custody and said she would face a prison term “of some substantial length”, The Guardian reported.
READ MORE:
* ‘Fraudster’ psychiatrist says certificates were gifts for family
* Fake Kiwi ‘doctor’ denies forging medical degree certificate
* Fake Kiwi ‘doctor’ practised in the UK for 19 years, court hears
Judge Manley said the deception enabled Alemi to work with “potentially very vulnerable people over a long period of time”.
The judge said Alemi’s offending was “very grave” and questioned how she was able to practise for so many years, in so many positions, the BBC reported.
Stuff
Zholia Alemi forged a graduating certificate from the University of Auckland.
Back in 1995, Alemi sent a forged certificate from the University of Auckland to the General Medical Council – who decide whether a doctor is qualified to practise in the UK.
The forged letter referred to “six years medical trainee with satisfactory grade”.
Alemi had actually dropped out of medical school after failing the first year of her five-year course.
Between 1998 and 2017, Alemi was employed by the NHS and worked at various health bodies and trusts.
Prosecutor Christopher Stables previously told the jury Alemi had worked with patients “quite literally the length and breadth of the country”.
RNZ
RNZ’s podcast The Detail delves into the rising financial abuse and fraud targeting elderly people and why most of the fraudsters get away with the crime – and the money.
He estimated, “a conservative estimate”, Alemi was paid more than $2 million from the NHS during this time.
Stables also previously described her as “a most accomplished forger and fraudster”.
Alemi will be sentenced later this month.
Earlier in the trial, the BBC reported that when a home owned by Alemi in Northern Ireland was searched by police, they found a briefcase in a cupboard containing part of a “forger’s kit”, including dry transfer letters and documents which Stables suggested were practice versions of a forged certificate.
Alemi was previously jailed for fraud and theft in 2018 after she was found to have doctored an elderly dementia patient’s will in west Cumbria in an attempt to inherit the pensioner’s £1.3 million (NZ$2.4 million) estate.
After she was jailed in 2018, the GMC apologised for “inadequate checks”.
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