While most doctors and nurses spend years studying to save lives – this group of self-professed medical experts lied about their qualifications for financial gain.
From Gumtree scammers to dodgy prescriptions, Woman’s Day is taking a closer look at the criminals who lied about taking the Hippocratic Oath.
FAKE SCRUBS
In an attempt to scam unsuspecting members of the Queensland community, local man Bradley Thomas Anthony Strauch went so far as to create bogus doctor’s scrubs, embroidered with his name, for his elaborate ploy.
During the four-month crime spree, which started in September 2016, the 25-year-old gave a medical examination to a woman with Parkinson’s and lied about performing surgery so he could steal cars from people online.
Strauch replied to seven advertisements to buy second-hand vehicles on Gumtree.
After arriving at the seller’s home in scrubs embroidered with his name, he’d show the seller a fake receipt to “prove” he had transferred the money.
He left with the car without paying for it.
He also told a man he met on Grindr he was homeless and, after being offered a place to stay, stole more than $100,000 from his bank account over a week.
In total, the phony doctor took more than $223,885 in cash and goods during his spree until police caught him in December 2016.
Facing Southport District Court in April 2019, Strauch pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud, six counts of stealing and one count each of attempted fraud, forged documents and possessing child exploitation material.
Upon his release in October 2023, Strauch was extradited to WA where he was charged with another 21 child sex offences against a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy in 2016.
STOLEN IDENTITY
For more than a decade, Shyam Acharya masqueraded as a doctor and treated patients across NSW before his true identity was discovered in 2017.
Using the identity of Indian doctor Sarang Chitale, Acharya treated patients for 11 years.
He also obtained Australian citizenship, gained registration with the NSW Medical Board and worked at four NSW hospitals as a junior doctor.
Acharya treated patients at several hospitals before the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency alerted NSW Health to a complaint and his long lie was exposed.
During an inquiry into Acharya’s fraud held in 2017, found that he had been a medical intern in Pune, India – but they could not confirm whether he recieved further medical training.
Acharya, who left Australia after being served with a court attendance notice, was convicted and fined $30,000 in his absence.
NSW Health said in a statement at the time that Acharya was involved in only one “clinical incident”.
Suprisingly, Acharya’s perfomance reviews described the fake doctor as “above average” – with one supervisor noting the scammer had gaps in his clinical knowleged, but was “certainly not the worst” they had seen.
“He was proficient at carrying out procedures and valued by the nurses for these skills,” one performance review stated.
CENTRELINK SWINDLE
After dedicating her days to working as an aged care nurse, Kylie Ann Rooke was found guilty of fraud after lying about being unemployed.
She claimed $48,852 of Centrelink benefits despite working as an aged care nurse at Biggera Waters.
The 32-year-old’s plan fell apart in 2010 when the Australian Taxation Office contacted Centrelink after a data match revealed she was employed and earning money she hadn’t disclosed.
Shockingly, she continued to receive the benefits for another 16 months, despite being asked to explain her income.
She pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud in Southport Magistrates Court in 2015.
The court was told Rooke was working full-time in aged care and part-time at an ice-cream factory and was paying off $500 of her debt each fortnight.
She was sentenced to nine months in jail, to be released on a good behaviour bond after three months.
TRICKS OF THE MIND
Russian-born Vincent Victor Berg fooled Queensland Health and hundreds of patients for years into believing he was a trained psychiatrist.
The 67-year-old posed as a clinical observer at the Gold Coast Hospital in 1999, and as a treating psychiatrist in the Townsville Health Service from 1999 to 2002, where he prescribed drugs and had access to hundreds of patients, some of whom had severe mental illnesses.
When his credentials were questioned, he told the Southport District Court he was trained by the KGB — the primary security agency for the Soviet Union — who had destroyed all records of his medical degree.
During a three-week trial in 2018, Berg’s former supervisor, Associate Professor Leon Petchkovsky, told the court he found him “quite credible” and felt he was good with patients.
Berg was found guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison, to be suspended after he served 20 months.
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