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A 39-year-old Nigerian, Oluwadamilola Opemuyi, has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison in the United Kingdom for posing as a medical doctor and treating 91 patients despite having no medical training.
Reports said she duped agencies into finding her positions after she assumed the identity of a fully qualified doctor and provided false documents.
According to KentOnline, the “delusional” 39-year-old fraudster – whose father is a gynaecologist and mother is a paediatrician – was able to obtain a position at Elmley and Swaleside prisons in Sheppey, as well as one in Essex and two in Liverpool.
Opemuyi, of Bridgeside Mews, Maidstone, was caught out when she presented two prescriptions she had forged at Boots chemist in Maidstone town centre.
When arrested, she declared: “I am a doctor and I wrote them myself.”
Opemuyi entered guilty pleas moments before she was due to stand trial on Monday.
Judge Jeremy Carey told Opemuyi: “Over a period of just under a month, and by great determination and considerable skill, you managed to get yourself to the position to persuade others you were qualified to be a GP.
“You obtained employment in a specialist profession in which the public place the highest trust when you are without training or experience.
“It is said that although serious errors were made by you, and it had potentially grave consequences, an investigation has resulted in there being an outcome which doesn’t have long-term adverse implications from a physical point of view.
“But I have seen a statement which bears out your criminal activities had a significant impact on the confidence in medical advisors.”
The judge said despite Opemuyi’s mental health difficulties he was not being invited to make a hospital order and he must, therefore, follow sentencing guidelines.
“You were intense in your determination to get to where you eventually arrived,” he said. “This is not a case where your principal aim was financial gain.
“You made references to requiring unrealistic remuneration for your services but this was all part of the fantasy you were spinning for yourself as a physician.
“There are aspects which are rightly characterised as bizarre. There is mitigation in one respect only, namely your mental health.”
Judge Carey said Opemuyi’s psychotic condition was an important consideration in passing sentence.
Opemuyi will serve half the sentence in prison before being released on licence. She has spent six months in custody – the equivalent of a 12-month sentence.
The judge added that it was expected Opemuyi would continue to receive treatment in prison.
Maidstone Crown Court heard Opemuyi had a degree from the University of West London in music, technology and public relations, but none for medicine.
She stole the identity of Oluwadamilola Adeyo, who is a year older. She studied at Manchester University and is fully qualified as a GP and has worked as a locum.