Fake psychiatrist ordered to pay back £406k to NHS after bogus 20-year career

A fake who forged her medical qualifications in order to work as a psychiatrist has been ordered to pay back £406,624 to the or face spending two and half more years in prison.

Zholia Alemi, 63, worked as a psychiatrist all over the UK for more than 20 years, earning a total sum of over £1million after she falsely claimed to have qualified at the in New Zealand. She was later found to have forged the degree certificate and letter of verification she used to register with the General Medical Council in 1995.

As a result, she did not have to sit and pass the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board exam, which is usually required of doctors who qualified abroad. A judge today determined Alemi's total criminal benefit was £1,204,819.30 and issued a confiscation order against her for £406,624.

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Adrian Foster, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “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. Alemi had little regard for patient welfare.

"She used forged New Zealand medical qualifications to obtain employment as an 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.

"Her fraudulent actions also enabled her to dishonestly earn income and benefits more than £1million, to which she was not entitled. She cheated the public purse and £406,624 will be paid in compensation to the NHS."

Ben Harrison, Head of Operations at the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, also welcomed the decision and praised his officers who led efforts to gain the confiscation order. He said: “This case demonstrates our determination to pursue those who deceive the NHS.

“Alemi’s actions have deprived the NHS of money that should have been spent on professionals who are qualified to provide patient care. Today’s court order will go towards recouping some of the losses incurred by the NHS trusts who employed her for more than two decades.

“The successful outcome in this case is a stark warning to anyone thinking of committing fraud against the NHS that when you’re caught, you will face justice and be made to return the stolen money. I want to thank CFA investigators and our partners, particularly Cumbria Police, whose investigation was instrumental in bringing Alemi to justice.

“The recovery of these funds wouldn't have been possible without their expertise and commitment and demonstrate the importance of multi-agency collaboration in tackling fraud.”

Alemi, of Burnley, Lancs, was previously sentenced to seven years in jail in February 2023 after being found guilty of 13 counts of fraud, two counts of forgery, three counts of deception and two counts of using material to falsify medical qualifications at Crown Court.

The court heard she was born in Iran, but was in Auckland in the early 1990s when she failed to complete her degree to practise as a doctor. She went on to work "more or less continuously" for both the NHS and private providers across the UK before her lies began to catch up with her after she was convicted of trying to forge the will of an elderly patient in Cumbria in 2018.

Phil Coleman, chief reporter for Cumbrian Newspapers, subsequently made inquiries into Alemi's background and discovered she had never completed her qualification. It was the "persistence" of Mr Coleman's investigative journalism that led to court proceedings, the court heard.

A judge later accused the General Medical Council of an "abject failure of scrutiny" and called for an inquiry into how they fell for "clearly false" papers, which included a forged letter of verification with misspelt words, including verify.