Fake psychiatrist faces jail for fraud after earning more than £1million from NHS
A BOGUS psychiatrist who earned more than £1million from the NHS is facing jail for fraud.
Zholia Alemi faked a medical degree from New Zealand to register here in 1995 then landed jobs at several trusts.
She worked with potentially vulnerable patients, earning between £1million and £1.3million.
Judge Manley told her: “There is only one possible sentence and that will be a sentence of immediate custody of some substantial length.”
The judge added it was a “deliberate and wicked deception” and described Alemi’s offences as “very grave”.
Prosecutor Christopher Stables told Manchester crown court: “She is, say the prosecution, a most accomplished forger and fraudster, but has no qualification that would allow her to be called, or in any way to be properly regarded as, a doctor.”
The court also heard she was jailed in 2018 for forging the will of an 84-year-old woman.
Iran-born Alemi, of Burnley, is thought to be 60 but had three birth dates on documents.
She was convicted of 13 fraud charges, three counts of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two counts of forgery and two counts of using a false instrument.
Alemi was told she faced a substantial jail term when sentenced on February 28.