Doctor who? | 27 June 2019

Last October, Phil Coleman, a journalist on the Carlisle-based News & Star, went to cover the trial of Zholia Alemi, a 56-year-old consultant psychiatrist who was accused of forging the will of an 84-year-old dementia patient in an attempt to inherit her £1.3 million estate. During the trial, Phil realised this complex scam could not have been the work of an amateur fraudster, and suspected previous mischief. How right he was. It turned out that Alemi had been practising in the NHS for 23 years without a medical qualification.

Originally from Iran, Alemi moved as a young woman to New Zealand where she claimed she had graduated in medicine from the University of Auckland in 1992. Yet Phil’s enquiries to the Medical Council of New Zealand confirmed that she had never qualified. After a staggered student career, Alemi had dropped out of medical school during her clinical training. Nevertheless, she went on to present forged papers to the General Medical Council (GMC) to obtain UK registration.