A FORMER taxi driver who posed as an eminent psychiatrist, making more than £1.5 million treating patients and helping hundreds of asylum-seekers to remain in Britain, was jailed for ten years yesterday.

In one of the biggest frauds of its kind uncovered, Barian Baluchi, 43, convinced judges, lawyers, doctors, charities and government departments that he was an eminent psychiatrist and respected professor.

Baluchi, whose only other jobs before turning to medicine had been as a waiter and in a dry-cleaning shop, was told by Judge Henry Blacksell that the scale of his crime “falls into new territory”.

Sentencing the Iranian-born immigrant at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, the judge said: “You are a practised and out-and-out fraudster and deceiver.” Baluchi, who pleaded guilty to 30 sample charges related to his deception, had reinvented himself in the late 1990s as “Professor Barian Samuel Baluchi, MB, ChB, MSc, PhD, consultant psychiatrist and neuro-psychiatrist”.

His intricate deception — which forced the NHS to write to more than 2,000 people on his clinic files warning them of the situation — resulted in an impressive CV that filled a sheet of A4 paper. It claimed he trained at Harvard, Colombia, Newcastle and Sussex universities, went to Leeds Medical School, and lectured on both sides of the Atlantic.

The walls of his clinic near Harley Street were adorned with authentic-looking certificates, while his name trailed a string of professional letters including two PhDs, the court was told. There was even a photograph of his “graduation” from the Imperial College of Medicine and Science, London.

Despite a total lack of qualifications, Baluchi also repeatedly gave evidence in court as a psychiatric expert, including a case in which a sex attacker was jailed for life at Birmingham Crown Court in 2003.

He also frequently gave “expert” opinion at the Immigration Appeals Tribunal and prepared hundreds of often critical reports about the mental trauma that asylum-seekers would suffer if sent home. The Home Office said last night that it would not be reviewing any of the 2,000 asylum cases Baluchi had been involved in.

Baluchi easily tricked the General Medical Council into registering him as a doctor, fooled the Charity Commission into registering his clinic as a mental health charity for migrants, and pocketed a fortune in grants. In the process, the twice-married father of two, who hid behind a “fog” of pseudonyms and blatantly stole other people’s identities, carried out surgical operations, left patients in pain and repeatedly gave evidence in court as a member of the Expert Witness Institute, the court was told.

The huge sums he banked by “bleeding the public purse” allowed him to buy a £670,000 five-bedroom house, luxury cars such as a £50,000 Mercedes with the private plate D8CTR, and send his daughter to private school. He was finally caught when a suspicious immigration tribunal officer tipped off the Home Office.

Charges admitted by Baluchi, of Hampton, southwest London, include twelve of obtaining a money transfer by deception, three of intent to pervert the course of justice, two of procuring a registration by false declarations, and one of supplying false and misleading information to the Charity Commission. Others involved perjury, more deception counts, causing actual bodily harm, administering a medicinal product, possessing a Class A drug, and having Class B drugs with intent to supply.

Outside court, Detective Constable Mark Horner said: “He deceived, exploited and abused the bastions of our society for his personal financial gain. But more importantly, he preyed on and exploited vulnerable people who had sought his help. Thankfully, cases like this are rare, but we hope Baluchi’s sentence will serve as a warning to anyone thinking of committing public sector fraud.”

Sylvia Brady, of the NHS Counter Fraud Service, said: “Baluchi has committed a massive breach of trust. He has shown no concern for the considerable distress caused by his irresponsible and reckless behaviour, against both vulnerable patients and the taxpayer.

“In claiming to be a highly qualified professional and obtaining NHS money to practice, he abused the faith of his patients and exploited the health service.”

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