GP jailed for false claims on Medicare

A FORMER Eastern Shore general practitioner who defrauded Medicare of $175,000 has been jailed.

The Supreme Court in Hobart yesterday heard Humphry John Polycarp Gomes, 54, made 2349 claims to Medicare for services he did not provide.

Gomes pleaded guilty to four counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage from the Commonwealth.

The court heard he received payments totalling $175,000 during four periods between May 2011 and July 2013.

At the time, Gomes was the owner and principal practitioner at Bellerive’s Wentworth practice.

His lawyer, Timothy McEvoy QC, said Gomes’ life was falling apart at the time of the offending as his wife had left him, moving to the Philippines with their then five-year-old daughter.

“The wheels of his life were really falling off at this time and he didn’t seek the help that he needed,” Mr McEvoy said.

“In November 2012, he and his wife became divorced and Humphry Gomes continued to seek comfort in alcohol, in gambling and . . . in online sex chat.

“He was engaged in selfmedication, he was gambling whilst at work, he was intoxicated at times at work.”

Gomes’ former parish priest Peter O’Loughlin – also one of his patients – praised Gomes as a thorough doctor and a devout parishioner.

Father O’Loughlin said when Gomes’ wife and daughter left Australia “that seemed to knock him sideways”.

“He always spoke very fondly and proudly about [his wife] and his daughter and my perception was that he would do any mortal thing he could for them.”

Fr O’Loughlin said Gomes also seemed “pretty much down on the heel financially in those days”.

The court heard colleagues raised concerns about Gomes’ billing practices, including Medicare claims he made while overseas, with the fed- LORETTA LO LOHBERGER LO eral Human Services Department in March 2013.

Police searched the practice on July 31, 2013 with charges laid in May 2016.

Gomes stopped practising as a GP and moved to Victoria, where he worked as a courier until a leg injury forced him to give up the job.

Mr McEvoy was bankrupt.

The court heard Gomes had arranged to pay almost $30,000 back to Medicare.

“The accused fully accepts that what has occurred represents a very significant breach of trust . . . he understands the role medical practitioners play in the community and that the Medicare system, if it is manipulated it . . . has a very significant cost for the entire community,” Mr McEvoy said.

“He takes responsibility for his offending, he’s ashamed by it, he’s embarrassed by it. He has been a man of very good reputation prior to the circumstances which found him here [in court] today.”

Justice Stephen Estcourt said he accepted Gomes was a caring and compassionate doctor, a deeply spiritual person, and a loving and doting father whose life fell apart when his wife left him.

However, he said a substantial term of imprisonment was “the only appropriate sentence”.

Justice Estcourt sentenced Gomes to three years’ jail for each of the four counts, to be served concurrently.

He can be released after serving 18 months on the condition he be of good behaviour for two years.

Justice Estcourt also ordered Gomes repay the money he fraudulently obtained.

The judge said Gomes’ guilty plea came at an early stage once the charges came before the court, which warranted a 25 per cent discount on his sentence. said Gomes