Fake ‘doctor’ told to shut down and to stop injecting Botox

A woman who allegedly forged a medical licence so she could buy drugs has been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to stop calling herself a doctor and to stop injecting Botox into the faces of customers.

Licensed and adequately trained doctors, dentists and registered nurses or nurse practitioners under the supervision of doctors are the only health professionals permitted to perform such cosmetic procedures, according to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.

The College has tried to stop Rajdeep Kaur Khakh of Abbotsford from posing as a doctor for three years. Each time the College intervened, she promised to stop, then defied authorities and went back to plumping up lips and freezing facial wrinkles with injectable drugs, even marketing her mobile services under the Instagram handle “drlipjob.”

Last month, the College decided to “play hardball” and went to court. A judge issued an order and also told Khakh to pay $25,000 in costs to the College. Khakh could be found in contempt of court if she doesn’t obey the order and could face jail time.

“It is certainly the only instance of forging medical credentials to further one’s unlawful practice that I know of,” said the College’s chief legal counsel, Graeme Keirstead, adding he doesn’t know if a doctor’s medical licence was stolen or how Khakh was able to obtain a copy of the medical licence that was used to open an account with pharmaceutical companies so that the drugs could be purchased on credit.

In October, 2015, a pharmaceutical firm informed the College that it was owed $164,000 for products that were advanced on credit and that Khakh was providing services at a spa in Surrey.

According to an affidavit filed in court by the College, the forged licence was found on a photocopier at the Clearbrook public library by an employee who notified the College. The name “Dr. Rajdeep Kaur Khakh” was substituted for the original name on the certificate and the expiry date of the medical licence had been altered.

“Upon review, the document appeared to be a copy of a genuine but expired (licence),” Keirstead said, adding that the identification number on the certificate belonged to a practising physician who was registered with the College.

Khakh could not be reached for comment. In an interview with CBC last year, she said she attended medical school at the University of Punjab but failed licensing exams. She first appeared on the College’s radar in March, 2015 when the regulatory body got a tip that she was injecting Botox and dermal filler “injectables” at a retreat in Delta called Atlantis Day Spa.

The College ordered her to stop doing that and also to stop using the title of doctor. She signed an undertaking to stop.

Then, in May, 2015, the document was found at the library.

The College hired a security company to do an undercover investigation. That yielded no results so several months later, a College employee went to the spa with a cease-and-desist letter. A signed and witnessed undertaking was sent to the College in August, 2016, but months later, the College received a tip that a woman calling herself Dr. Raji was still offering services at Doria Salon in Surrey.

The College confirmed Dr. Raji was the same person marketing herself as “DrLipJob” and was, in fact, Khakh. Again the College hired a security firm to conduct an undercover investigation with hidden cameras, video surveillance and the collection of evidence consisting of empty boxes of the drugs. In October, 2017, the College served her with its application for a permanent injunction which required her to appear in court. The very next day, an individual tipped off the College that she had received dermal filler at her home by the still-defiant Khakh.

Keirstead said the College has consulted Fraser Health Authority and they do not believe there are any public health or infection control concerns related to Khakh’s services but “anyone who sees an illegal practitioner puts themselves and their family at risk for bacterial and viral infections.”

The College pursued a similar case last year but in that situation, a patient got a serious infection after having surgery with a fake doctor in her home-based clinic. A public health warning was issued.