Nicholas Sevdalis: Fairfield doctor allegedly acts on suspended registration

A Fairfield doctor who had his medical registration taken off him allegedly went on to keep working as if nothing had happened.

Sevdalis allegedly falsely held himself to be a registered medical practitioner.

A Fairfield doctor has been accused of repeatedly pretending to be a registered health practitioner after his registration was taken away from him.

Nicholas Sevdalis, 62, fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on February 23, facing 41 charges, including 33 charges of knowing or recklessly holding himself out as being registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

The court heard Sevdalis had allegedly falsely represented himself as being a registered doctor on numerous occasions from December 2018 to July 2019.

It was heard Sevdalis’ registration had been suspended by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal from November 1, 2018 for a period of 18 months — until April 30, 2019.

His registration was then allegedly suspended by the Medical Board of Australia again on May 10, 2019 — 10 days after his initial suspension concluded.

While suspended, Sevdalis allegedly prescribed medications to patients, made requests of pharmacies, claimed payments from the Transport Accident Commission for a patient, issued medical certificates detailing patients were unfit for work and contacted VicRoads’ Medical Review team about patients’ licences.

Sevdalis allegedly referred to himself as patients’ general practitioner while speaking to VicRoads about patients’ licences and while speaking to a law firm about a workplace injury.

Sevdalis’ lawyer said his client planned to contest the charges, claiming there were factual issues.

It was heard the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency had organised 15 witnesses to speak against Sevdalis, including about nine pharmacists.

The lawyer pushed for the contested hearing to happen as soon as possible, saying Sevdalis’ registration remained suspended until the proceedings were resolved.

His case will return to court on March 23.