Psychiatrist defrauded Social Services to offset clinic costs, court told

Local doctor sentenced to 12 months house arrest, ordered to repay $96K

A Saskatoon psychiatrist will be on house arrest for 12 months as part of his fraud sentence handed down in provincial court.

Dr. Akinlolu Olalekan Peluola must also pay back the $95,708.38 that he defrauded from the Saskatchewan government between 2017 and 2018.

The 65-year-old pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 in December 2023. Last month, he received a 21-month conditional sentence — a jail sentence served in the community on conditions — after Judge Darren Howarth accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence.

Peluola was caught billing the Ministry of Social Services for “fraudulent services” after an investigation began in February 2022. He turned himself in to police last summer and was released on conditions.

Crown prosecutor Carol Carlson said thousands of small fraudulent transactions were made over a year, and Peluola breached the trust of his employer — the government.

“We're dealing with a situation where it's ultimately the taxpayer who is the victim here, and it's certainly a situation where, akin to tax evasion, any sort of fraud vis-a-vis income support from the Ministry of Social Services essentially is stealing from the government,” Carlson said.

At the time, Peluola worked at Victory Medical Associates in Saskatoon. He is also listed as a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine. He is still licensed and has continued to practise medicine without any issues, defence lawyer George Green told court. Peluola is still facing professional disciplinary charges with the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

According to the College, Peluola is accused of excessively billing the medical services branch of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health and/or claiming for services not provided by his practice, excessively billing and/or claiming for services not provided to patients at Spruce Manor Special Care Home and/or at Warman Mennonite Special Care Home, and for services not provided at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.

Court heard he was trying to offset the costs of a new clinic he was opening on the city's west side.

“He certainly got in over his head on the clinic — felt the pressure that he needed to increase his revenue. Is that a mitigating factor? Absolutely not. Is it an excuse? Absolutely not,” Green said.

He told court that his client grew up in Nigeria and came to Canada in 1999. He is married with three adult children, has no prior criminal record and has been a contributing and positive community member, faculty member and active member of the Saskatchewan Psychiatry Association, Green said.

Peluola also started the first African Evangelical Church in Saskatoon, Redeemed Christian Church of God, to which he has given more than $300,000, and established the city's first Yoruba language school in 2003, court heard.

Green said Peluola emailed him a statement saying he “is ashamed of his actions that have led to the erosion of trust bestowed on him by the people that he serves.”