Fake doctor attended NZ uni
AUCKLAND: A New Zealand university has confirmed that a woman jailed in the UK after she faked her medical qualifications did start a medical degree here.
Zholia Alemi — the woman at the centre of the scandal — did not, however, complete it.
A spokeswoman for the University of Auckland told the New Zealand Herald yesterday the only qualification Alemi had from the tertiary establishment was a bachelor of human biology.
She graduated with that qualification on May 5, 1992.
The confirmation comes as authorities in the UK move to carry out urgent checks on the creden tials of up to 3000 foreign doctors working in Britain.
The move was sparked after Alemi, who is said to be an IranianKiwi, was last month jailed for five years after it was found she had provided false qualifications that allowed her to work as a psychiatrist for 22 years.
She worked as a doctor up until June of last year.
The 56yearold, who moved to the UK in the early 1990s, claimed to have a degree from the University of Auckland.
She reportedly provided bosses with a bachelor of medicine and a bachelor of surgery certificate from the university.
Noone at the General Medical Council — the watchdog responsible for vetting the background of medics — checked the documentation to ensure it was genuine.
She was found out more than two decades later when she tried to fraudulently alter an elderly patient’s will.
Had she been successful, Alemi would have stolen up to $2.4 million of the woman’s fortune.
Zholia Alemi used a fraudulent qualification to join the medical register in 1995 and worked as a doctor until June 2017.
For the next 22 years, starting in 1995, Alemi worked as a psychiatrist for the UK’s National Health Service — treating thousands of mental health patients over that period and potentially earning up to $188,000 a year.
The GMC is now informing Alemi’s former patients who may have concerns about their treatment to contact their GP immediately.