• Iranian-Kiwi Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist in the UK for 22 years, using fake University of Auckland qualifications. 
• She was jailed in 2023 for seven years. 
• A judge has now ordered her to pay close to $1 million (NZD) in compensation or face more time in prison. 

A woman who faked having a medical degree from a top New Zealand university – earning about $2 million in wages over two decades – has been ordered to pay thousands back or face more jail time. 

Iranian-Kiwi Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service for more than 20 years after providing a fake qualification for a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery certificate from the University of Auckland. 

The only qualification she had earned from the university was a Bachelor of Human Biology, which she graduated with in May 1992. 

Her deception was found out in 2018 after local journalist Phil Coleman, of The News & Star, contacted Auckland University and found out her qualifications were fake. 

In 2023, she was jailed for seven years – despite denying 20 offences that included forgery. 

Zholia Alemi's forged certificate. 

Overnight in the UK, a judge told the now 62-year-old Alemi that she is to pay back £400,000 ($913,000) in compensation to the NHS, or face two-and-a-half more years in prison, the BBC reported. 

‘She cheated the public purse’ 

Crown Prosecution Service spokesman Adrian Foster told media they had pursued the proceeds of crime with the NHS Counter Fraud Authority and identified all assets Alemi has available to pay her order. 

“Alemi had little regard for patient welfare,” he said. 

Iranian-Kiwi Zholia Alemi claimed she had a degree from the University of Auckland. She did not. 

“She used forged New Zealand medical qualifications to obtain employment as an NHS psychiatrist for 20 years. In doing so, she must have treated hundreds of patients when she was unqualified to do so – potentially putting those patients at risk.” 

Foster said Alemi’s fraudulent actions had enabled her to dishonestly earn income and benefits equalling more than £1m (about $2.7m) she was not entitled to. 

“She cheated the public purse.” 

After Alemi’s fraudulent actions were exposed in 2018, the UK’s General Medical Council apologised for what it described as its “inadequate” checking systems in the 1990s. 

As a result, the council also carried out urgent checks on thousands of foreign doctors working in the UK. 

Zholia Alemi worked as an NHS psychiatrist for 22 years when she came to work in the UK in 1992 despite not having any qualifications. Photo / Supplied