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Patients
arriving at the Kimia Clinic in an imposing
Westminster townhouse must have been impressed by
the credentials of its owner. His notepaper was
headed, "Professor Barian Samuel Baluchi MB ChB MSc
PhD Consultant Psychiatrist and Neuro-Psychiatrist".
For nearly five years, the Iranian-born practitioner
operated a lucrative private practice offering
services ranging from advising the Government on its
refugee policies to giving court testimony as an
expert witness.
He had a five-bedroom house in west London costing
£670,000, a Mercedes with the registration D8CTR and
private schooling for his daughter. But the
43-year-old who counselled traumatised refugees and
performed minor surgery, had no medical
qualifications, a court heard yesterday. His PhD,
which helped him obtain an estimated £1.5m in grants
and payments, came from a "distance-learning" course
in America whose academic requirements included
playing golf and reading a newspaper.
Baluchi admitted 30 charges, including obtaining a
false medical registration, perjury and possession
of a class A drug.
In reality, the twice-married father of two children
was a former taxi driver and dry-cleaner who amassed
20 false identities and faked his graduation
photograph from Imperial College, London, Middlesex
Guildhall Crown Court was told. Baluchi had conned
dozens of individuals, including charity officials,
who gave him grants worth more than £100,000, and
solicitors acting for asylum-seekers who had paid
£375,000 for hundreds of expert reports.
Louise Kamill, for the prosecution, said: "He took
in people from the newly arrived asylum-seeker to
senior officials at the Department of Health, from
people practised in detecting dishonesty such as the
judges sitting at the Old Bailey to his own personal
acquaintances. Each believed him to be a qualified
doctor and trusted him. He was completely
unqualified, his identity is liquid."
The con artist provided testimony in high-profile
court cases, including that of a Kurdish refugee
convicted of raping and sexually assaulting 10 women
by posing as a gynaecologist. Acting as an expert
for the Immigration Appeals Tribunal, Baluchi is
also feared to have given incorrect diagnoses of
post-traumatic stress disorder. Of the 1,500
asylum-seekers on whom he reported, 1,000 are
thought to have been successful. The Home Office has
refused to comment.
Baluchi also obtained £35,000 from the Department of
Health for a refugee mental health service and
£96,000 from the Home Office for counselling
refugees and their families. Such was his mastery of
deception that his first wife unwittingly helped him
prepare his grant applications and never knew he had
remarried or had children.
The court heard his PhD in counselling from the
now-closed Columbia State University had been
obtained by accumulating "life-style credits" for
activities including watching television and keeping
tropical fish.
He used the stolen identity of a Spanish
psychiatrist to obtain registration from the General
Medical Council. He also performed several
procedures, including a botched attempt to twist a
patient's spine and removing a wart from a penis.
Baluchi was remanded in custody to await sentence.
http://www.independent.co.uk
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