Abdulkadir Ibrahim fronts court over Medicare fraud

A Melbourne GP feels “traumatised” after a fraudster used her identity to obtain nearly $465k in Medicare benefits over nearly two years.

Fraudster Abdulkadir Ibrahim leaves County Court after pleading guilty to rorting taxpayers of nearly $465,000 in fraudulent Medicare claims.

A Melbourne GP whose identity a crook used to pocket nearly $465,000 by submitting bogus Medicare claims says she’s “traumatised” and doesn’t even have the energy to talk about the case.

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

The 44-year-old father-of-three pleaded guilty in the County Court on Thursday to a charge of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage after he used the ill-gotten gains for family expenses.

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

Court documents stated Ibrahim 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.

Abdulkadir Ibrahim obtained nearly $465,000 by lodging fraudulently Medicare claims using Dr Halima Satari’s identity.

However, Dr Satari informed him during discussions that she did not want to do at-home consultations and did not end up taking 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, 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.

Ibrahim’s lawyer Jessica Willard asked the court to consider either releasing him on a recognisance order or imposing a short prison term, given his guilty plea and that he had a young family to look after.

Ibrahim has paid the fraudulently-obtained money back in full through help from his UK-based brothers and that there was no evidence that he used the money to live a lavish lifestyle, she said.

Ms Willard said the money was used for family expenses but Judge Michael McInerney said he didn’t accept that explanation.

He said Ibrahim should have thought about the welfare of his wife and children when he stole from the public purse and that he was lucky he had a family to help repay the stolen amount back.

Ms Willard said Ibrahim tried to get into a business he had no experience in, he started putting in Medicare claims thinking he’d get doctors on board, and put ads in Gumtree.

Judge McInerney said Gumtree was a strange place to advertise for medical practioners.

Neither the prosecution nor the defence lawyers were able to say how or why Ibrahim’s offending stopped.

He will be sentenced on September 13.