Fake and dodgy medical practitioners among 100 prosecutions by national watchdog AHPRA

A “dentist” with no qualifications and a “doctor” who practised for a decade without papers are among 100 dodgy medicos prosecuted by the health regulator.

A fake dentist who treated patients despite having no qualifications and a fraudulent doctor who worked under a stolen identity for a decade are among the 100 people prosecuted by the health regulator.

There have been 100 criminal cases against deceptive healthcare workers since 2014, more than half of which involved fake practitioners: unqualified people who pretended to be registered health professionals.

Twenty Australians previously investigated by the regulator were hauled before the courts for continuing to work with suspended or cancelled registrations; while a small number were stung for misleading advertisements.

Some of the outrageous lies spun by fraudsters included claims that chiropractic therapy could treat, cure and prevent cancer.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency this week hit the 100-prosecution milestone when Alexander Gigney – who worked unsupervised as a pharmacist while unregistered – was fined $1200 and sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order in Adelaide’s Magistrate Court.

AHPRA chief executive Martin Fletcher said the milestone was a significant moment.

“Pretending to be registered when you’re not or making dangerous unfounded claims about your services puts the public at risk,” he said. “We take these matters seriously.”

South Australians accounted for 10 of AHPRA’s 100 prosecutions including the 100th, after Gigney continued to work after his registration had lapsed.

Other cases involving South Australians include now-disqualified nurse Helena Heaft who presented herself as a registered nurse while working in various aged-care facilities around Adelaide in 2018 despite being suspended.

Helena Heaft covers her face as she leaves the Adelaide Magistrates Court on October 11, 2019. Picture: Kelly Barnes.

Marek Jantos outside court.

She pleaded guilty to 66 charges in the Adelaide Magistrates Court and was given a three-year good behaviour bond and had to pay a victims of crime levy totalling $10,500.

However, AHPRA appealed against the sentence in the Supreme Court – its first such appeal – and Justice Nicholson ordered her to perform 80 hours of community service after finding the original sentence was manifestly inadequate.

In 2019 Heaft was disqualified from applying for registration as a nurse for 25 years.

Another prosecution was against Marek Jantos who in 2018 was convicted of holding himself out as a registered psychologist and unlawfully using a specialist medical title.

His company was also convicted of misleading and deceptive advertising, and Jantos and his company were fined a total of $16,000 after pleading guilty.

His registration as a psychologist had been cancelled in 2007 “in order to protect the public” from behaviour that included invasive physical therapy in the context of psychological treatment.

Major Australian prosecutions include:

FORMER cosmetic surgeon Mohamad Faizel Bin Anwar, who kept working for several weeks after the regulator suspended his medical registration amid patient safety fears. He was handed a $100,000 fine – a Victorian record – in 2018;

FAKE dentist Edward Lipohar, who was fined $65,000 in 2018 after he was caught treating Melbourne patients despite having no qualifications and little dentistry knowledge;

Shyam Acharya, when he was working under fake name of Sarang Chitale in a NSW hospital

Dr Faizal Anwar, plastic surgeon, continued practising after being deregistered.

THE 2017 case against the Australian Male Hormone Clinic, whose $127,500 fine for misleading claims about their testosterone deficiency treatment has remained a national record;

TASMANIAN physiotherapist Michael Dempsey, who received a $120,00 fine in 2019 after organising unqualified migrants, such as taxi drivers, to work as physiotherapists under fake names in aged care;

SHYAM Acharya, who impersonated a UK doctor to practise in Australia for more than a decade before fleeing, was fined $30,000 in absentia in 2017;

THE first (and only) sentence of “imprisonment” – Zhi Sin Lee – a medical student who failed her final exams, worked as an intern at a hospital despite not being registered. Initially sentenced to two years intensive corrections order (imprisonment served in the community), with an additional fine of $10,000, this was reduced on appeal to 18 months.

Eleven of the 100 prosecutions related to cosmetic services, an industry AHPRA admitted was in need of tighter regulation last year after a damning report. They accepted the report’s 16 recommendations.

Changes to national law in 2019 – passed after some of AHPRA’s most notorious cases – also mean defendants found guilty of pretending to be a registered health practitioner now face up to three years imprisonment.

Australian Centre for Health Law Research Prof Tina Cockburn said AHPRA’s work on these 100 cases “holds offenders to account and deters noncompliance”.