More than 60 fake ‘medics’ uncovered in past five years 

A seedy underworld of medical procedures has been uncovered, with dozens of unqualified doctors caught breaking the law and leaving a trail of damaged patients.

After masquerading as an IVF specialist for more than decade, Raffaele Di Paolo was jailed for nine and a half years in 2018. Picture: Eugene Hyland

Australians are being put at risk by dodgy doctors amid revelation that dozens of fakes, fraudsters and unregistered medics have been caught illegally treating patients.

More than 60 fake or ­unregistered doctors, nurses, dentists and other health professionals have been caught treating unsuspecting patients in the five years since January 2016.

A 10 per cent jump in complaints against unregistered medics last year has prompted authorities to urge Australians to check the qualifications of their practitioners.

Victorian patients have been placed in the greatest danger, with 25 health workers prosecuted since 2016 for “holding out” – the term health regulators use for anyone ­practising without medical registration.

Five others – including a doctor, nurse or midwife and occupational therapist – are currently facing charges in Victorian courts.

Other recent investigations have uncovered doctors and dentists who had practised for more than a decade in Melbourne’s suburbs without any qualifications before being caught, despite leaving a trail of damaged patients.

Investigators believe Phoebe Pacheco saw more than 145 patients while working as a cosmetic doctor.

Mohamad ‘Faizal’ Anwar was found to have continued providing services after being suspended in 2016.

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency chief executive Martin Fletcher said some of those caught holding out were banned or suspended practitioners who ignored orders relating to their safety. Others may have never even been trained or sought registration in Australi before passing themselves off as medics.

Mr Fletcher said both categories raised serious dangers for unsuspecting patients.

“If you are a patient, you are entitled to expect the person you are seeing, who is providing treatment, is who they say they are and has the qual­ifications and skills you’d expect of a registered health practitioner,” he said.

“It is often quite a gross violation of the trust of patients to be seeing someone who is forcibly claiming to be registered when they are not.”

After a string of concerning and high-profile cases were uncovered, Australian health ministers beefed up laws across the country from July 1, last year, making holding out an offence punishable by jail.

One of those cases was ­Muhammet Velipasaoglu, who had treated hundreds of patients at a dental clinic in his Meadow Heights garage for 12 years before being detected in 2015. He pleaded guilty but escaped prison as the maximum allowed sentence was a monetary fine.

Mr Fletcher said the best way for the public to remain safe and receive appropriate medical care was to check the national register of practitioners, across 16 professions.

“You know they are qualified and you know they are subject to standards and, if there are restrictions on their registration, that will appear on their registration, as well,” Mr Fletcher said.

Maurice Blackburn national head of medical negligence Dimitra Dubrow said it was unfortunate Australians needed to examine medical registers to ensure their practitioner was legitimate. “We are often approached by people who have suffered shocking injuries at the hands of these perpetrators, many of whom have unfortunately only realised the person treating them was unqualified or had been banned after the damage had been done,” she said.

BOTOX JAB TURNS INTO HORROR ORDEAL

THE patient stood in the middle of busy Chadstone, her infected lip swelling, as she searched the crowd for her doctor.

Dr Aliaa Sherif said to meet at the shopping centre so she could hand the woman antibiotics to treat her soaring temperature.

It had been a week since she was in the cosmetic doctor’s house, where the family dog ran wild as a needle was shoved into her lumpy lip – an attempt to dissolve a dodgy reaction to Botox.

“This is not hygienic,” the patient pointed to the dog during the May 2019 session, but Dr Sherif assured her it was fine.

The patient returned the next night to show the good doctor the “bubble” that swelled on her lip and to tell her of the ongoing pain sitting heavy on her chest.

“This is not bubble, it’s infection,” Dr Sherif said when she looked over her lip, “suck it out”.

They’d agreed over encrypted service WhatsApp to meet at Chadstone, but Dr Sherif never came. Instead, her son arrived and handed the patient a paper bag.

Aliaa Sherif was slapped with a $15,000 fine after pleading guilty to holding herself out as a medical practitioner. Picture: Ian Currie

“This is what my mum sent to you,” he said as he passed her the bag.

When she finally went to hospital, her lips purple and burning, the patient was told that Dr Aliaa Sherif wasn’t a doctor at all.

In fact, her Mount Waverley clinic had been raided by authorities months earlier and she was issued with a cease and desist notice.

The betrayal hit harder because the patient had helped the fake doctor build her private rooms into the “Feel Young Again” cosmetic clinic.

They’d met at a Victorian government small business mentoring program in 2016, where the woman, a financial adviser and business consultant, offered her free advice.

Sherif explained she was a doctor working in cosmetic beauty for a decade in Australia and Egypt.

It was the reason the woman had looked up her old client three years later as she searched for someone “trustworthy” to give her Botox.

When she confronted Sherif that she was a fake, sending her pictures of her lower lip and tongue covered in puss, the fraudster replied on WhatsApp: “I am a practitioner, I have got experiences”.

Three months later, when the fraudster faced authorities in an interview room, she denied injecting the patient and sending her messages. Sherif was slapped with a $15,000 fine in the Magistrates’ Court on June 22 after pleading guilty to holding herself out as a medical practitioner.

PATIENT’S FACE BLOODIED, SWOLLEN

***WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW***

When Kelly* went to a ritzy Armadale cosmetic clinic to have some fluid drained from under her eyes, she was stunned to see Cynthia Weinstein – aka Dr Skin – managing its reception.

The easily recognisable Ms Weinstein had been banned as a doctor in 2010 and prosecuted in 2016 for practising without a medical registration.

“I’d seen her in the media since I was a young girl, and she had gone from the high life to no life as a disgraced doctor,” Kelly said. “I was a bit shocked.”

On this occasion, though, Kelly was relieved to find Ms Weinstein organised for her employee Dr Angela Xu to consult. A nurse later treated Kelly for the fluid retention on June 25, 2020.

But that relief turned to worsening horror after an allegedly malfunctioning laser burnt her, requiring months of ongoing treatments and now the prospect of surgery to repair her face.

Celebrity cosmetic doctor Cynthia Weinstein pleaded guilty to recklessly holding herself out as a registered medical practitioner. Picture: Ian Currie

“They advised the laser they put on me as having seven to 10 days down time – I’m now at 340 days with many side-effects with the downtime still in effect. My face and eyes have been affected to the point that I have been advised by independent doctors that I need surgery,” Kelly said.

“It was a malfunctioning vaginal tightening machine that should never have been near my face.”

Kelly said her face was bloodied and swollen, and that the skin underneath her eyes had “melted and shrunk”.

Throughout July 2020, Kelly sent daily photos of her face to CDC Clinic to update them on her worsening condition to see if anything could be done, claiming she received text and emails from Ms Weinstein offering advice.

Kelly said her face was bloodied and swollen, and that the skin underneath her eyes had ‘melted and shrunk’.

While Ms Weinstein had not been present during the laser procedure, Kelly claims the clinic owner came in to some of Kelly’s consultations with Dr Xu and nurse Jacqui.

“When they saw the magnitude of my eyes and they didn’t know how to treat me, Dr Xu brought Cynthia into the consultation,” Kelly said.

Ms Weinstein has since sold her Armadale clinic and it has been renamed CDS Clinics. Neither the clinic, nor Dr Xu who still works there, responded to Herald Sun questions.

Ms Weinstein said she did not consult or treat the patient, adding that she “had nothing to do with the patient other than when she was at the reception desk”.

“Cynthia Weinstein did not correspond with the patient at any stage. She did not provide any clinical advice at any stage to this patient. Cynthia had NO role in the treatment of this patient.”

* not her real name