A BOGUS psychiatrist who was able to practise for more than 20 years - and cheat the NHS out of £1.3m - has failed in appeals against her conviction and sentence.

Zholia Alemi, then living in Burnley, was jailed for seven years at Manchester Crown Court in 2023 after being convicted of 20 fraud offences.

Her downfall was triggered by a Carlisle Crown Court case in 2018, when she was jailed for five years for forging the will of an elderly vulnerable patient.

Journalist Phil Coleman, who works for our sister paper, the News and Star in Carlisle, investigated whether, as stated in court, Alemi was in fact a qualified consultant psychiatrist.

And when it emerged her Bachelor Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree certificates from the University of Auckland were forgeries, she was charged with fraud.

Prosecutors said she had earned up to £1.3m as a consultant psychiatrist and been able to prescribe powerful drugs to patients. Police had raided her then-home and found what was described as a 'forger's kit', which she had used to fake her medical qualifications.

The Court of Appeal was told at trial Ameli denied failing any elements of the course and her lawyers said the fact she had managed to practise for 20 years without issue proved she was capable of passing the exams in New Zealand.

Alemi, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, was convicted of 13 counts of fraud, three counts of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two counts of forgery and two counts of using a false instrument was after a trial at Manchester Crown Court and jailed for seven years by Judge Hilary Manley.

Her grounds for appeal against her conviction and sentence alleged no account had been taken of her autism diagnosis and she had been denied bundles of prosecution evidence.

She also complained that she had restricted access to the prosecution's case and limited availability for printing.

Alemi also draw parallels between her case and the Post Office appeal - alleging her human rights had been infringed.

Her counsel, Francis Fitzgibbon KC, also told the court she contended that the trial judge had incorrectly considered the Carlisle conviction as an aggravating factor when determining her sentence.

But Lord Justice Dingemans, sitting with Mr Justice Holgate and Mr Justice Hilliard, dismissed her appeals in their entirety.

He told the court, on the sentencing issue: "The judge was entitled to have regard to the fact that the applicant had used the obtaining of her qualification as a doctor by fraud to take advantage of a vulnerable person towards the end of their life."

Lord Justice Dingemans also said the trial judge had taken into account her mental health difficulties and age when arriving at her final sentence.