Fraudster posing as psychiatrist for 22 years prompts urgent checks to medical register

The General Medical Council (GMC) is investigating historical applications to the medical register after a woman was jailed for five years for posing as a psychiatrist and defrauding an elderly woman.

Zholia Alemi, 55, was jailed for fraud in October of this year after it was found she was practicing with a fraudulent qualification and had altered a patient’s will to make herself one of the main beneficiaries.

She had been allowed to practice within the NHS for 22 years.

There are now as many as 3,000 NHS practitioners under investigation, dating back to the 1990s.

Ms Alemi, from New Zealand, joined the medical register in 1997 at a time when admissions for Commonwealth applicants was less rigorous. The section of the medical act which she originally applied under was scrapped in 2003.

In a statement on their website, the GMC said: ‘Zholia Alemi was suspended from the medical register on 23 June 2017. Since October 2018, she has been serving a five-year prison sentence.

‘As soon as we became aware that she used a fraudulent qualification to join the register, we contacted the police and other organisations responsible for healthcare services in the UK. It’s vital that we all now take the necessary action to support patients and investigate these serious issues.

‘It is clear that in this case, the steps taken at the time she joined the register were inadequate and we apologise for any risk arising to patients as a result. We are confident that, 23 years on, our systems are robust and would identify any fraudulent attempt to join the medical register.'

Ms Alemi had been working as a consultant psychiatrist at Later Life Service at Workington Community Hospital, where the elderly victim had been referred after her husband passed away.

Carers initially raised concerns about Ms Alemi in June 2016 when they found the victim had been dismissed from home domiciliary care services in Cockermouth in Cumbria by Ms Alemi but was going for dinners with her a month later.

Cumbria Constabulary spoke with both Ms Alemi and the victim and they concluded that nothing ‘untoward’ was going on.

However, it soon came to light that several watches belonging to the elderly woman had recently gone missing, and later, when the patient had began to discuss her care needs with care providers, it was discovered that Ms Alemi had taken it upon herself to write the victim’s will, with herself as the main beneficiary.

The victim, who knew Ms Alemi as ‘Julia’, had said to carers: “Julia has drafted a will. Julia has put herself down for everything as I did not tell her I had a family…but I don’t want her having it all.”

It also appears Ms Alemi had applied for lasting power of attorney in the victim’s name, which the police later found she had not been instructed to do.

The police eventually seized two display cases containing the missing watches, some of the victim's bank cards and the new will. Ms Alemi was finally arrested on 6 June 2016.

The GMC has advised that anyone who has been treated by Zholia Alemi, or has a relative treated by Ms Alemi, speak to the GP surgery, hospital or clinic where they were treated.