Abdulkadir Ibrahim fronts court over fraudulent Medicare claims

A fraudster stole a Melbourne GP’s identity to submit thousands of Medicare patient claims and rorted taxpayers of nearly $465k

Fraudster Abdulkadir has been jailed for rorting Victorian taxpayers by submitting bogus Medicare claims and obtaining nearly $465,000.

A Melbourne conman stole a GP’s details to run a Medicare claims scam pocketing almost $465,000 of taxpayers’ money.

Abdulkadir Ibrahim used Melbourne GP Dr Halima Satari’s registration details and filed 3288 Medicare patient claims between November 2016 and August 2018.

He pleaded guilty in County Court last week to a charge of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage and was on Friday sentenced to three years in prison, to be released on a recognisance release order after serving 12 months.

Ibrahim will have to be on good behaviour for three years upon his release from jail.

The 44-year-old father-of-three from Preston has back paid the fraudulently obtained money in full through help from his UK-based brothers.

Judge Michael McInerney although he was mindful that a sentence of imprisonment would be hard on Ibrahim’s young family, he agreed with the prosecution that jail was warranted given the seriousness of the offence.

Abdulkadir Ibrahim fraudulently claimed nearly $465,000 in Medicare benefits by using a Melbourne GP’s identity.

Ibrahim registered the company GP at Home Pty Ltd in June 2016, offering clinic-based and tele health consultations with medical professionals.

He advertised on Gumtree for GPs to work at his practice and Dr Satari contacted him, expressing an interest to work as the principal GP and medical director in his company.

However, Dr Satari informed him during discussions that she did not want to do at-home consultations and eventually did not take any positions with the new company.

Unbeknown to her, Ibrahim lodged Medicare claims under her name and payments totalling $464,658 were made to a Bank of Melbourne account number under his wife’s name.

Dr Satari informed Medicare upon learning of Ibrahim’s behaviour and, following his guilty plea last week, said she was “traumatised” by what happened.

“I have no energy left. I am so tired of this case because it took up a lot of my time and energy,” she said.

Dr Satari now works for Doctors of Coburg North.

Judge McInerney said Ibrahim’s brothers in the UK showed great generosity in helping repay the fraudulently obtained public money, even though they were “very disappointed” in their brother’s criminal conduct.