Fake psychiatrist imprisoned for forging medical degree

• Zholia Alemi was sentenced to seven years in prison for forging a medical degree certificate.
• GMC registered her as a doctor when the documents she submitted in 1995 were “clearly false”.
• Alemi had earned up to £1.3 million in NHS wages.

A woman sentenced to seven years in prison for forging a medical degree certificate in order to work as a psychiatrist for more than two decades.

According to Manchester Crown Court, Zholia Alemi worked across the UK after claiming to have graduated from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Alemi, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, possessed the authority to detain mentally ill patients against their will.

She had denied 20 charges, including forgery, but a jury found her guilty.

She was found guilty on 13 counts of fraud, including three counts of obtaining a monetary advantage through deception, two counts of forgery, and two counts of using a false instrument.

Judge Hilary Manley requested an investigation into how the General Medical Council (GMC) registered her as a doctor when the documents she submitted in 1995 were “clearly false” during the sentencing hearing.

Alemi studied to be a doctor in New Zealand in the early 1990s but did not complete her studies. She did, however, work as a consultant clinical psychologist.

According to the court, she forged a degree certificate and a letter of verification in 1995, with the word verify misspelt.

Despite this, the GMC accepted both as evidence and registered her as a doctor.

She “practised continuously in a very large number of posts literally from one end of the country to the other,” according to Manchester Crown Court.

The court heard Alemi had earned up to £1.3 million in NHS wages, which she obtained fraudulently due to falsified documents.

When Alemi was convicted in 2018 at Carlisle Crown Court of attempting to forge the will and powers of attorney of an 84-year-old widow from Keswick who was one of her patients – so she became the main beneficiary of her estate – an investigative journalist uncovered the truth.

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