Stretching the truth | 'Fake doctor' duped NHS for 20 years. What can HR do if staff lie about their skills?

Every HR professional will have encountered a job applicant who has stretched the truth on their CV. Perhaps they exaggerated their PowerPoint prowess or pretended to be proficient in Photoshop. Maybe it was a little white lie about a lengthy employment gap out of fear of being judged.

However, news emerged from a court last week about one person who took their lies to a whole new level. 

Over a twenty-year period, Zholia Alemi worked as an NHS psychiatrist in hospitals in England, Wales, and Scotland, earning income and benefits over £1m.

But she never held the medical qualifications necessary to undertake these roles. Alemi had actually forged her medical qualifications at the University of Auckland to gain entry to the General Medical Council register. In truth, she had dropped out of her university course after the first year. She was then able to gain employment in various hospitals based on this fraud.