Two years after he was struck off the medical register for a $1 million fraud, Raglan doctor Andrew McNab was back treating patients.
While working as a receptionist at his old practice, the Raglan Medical Centre, in 1998, he treated six patients as a doctor.
Yesterday, McNab, aged 47, pleaded guilty in the Hamilton District Court to six charges of acting as a medical practitioner and administering prescription medicines while not registered as a doctor.
Judge Robert Spear released him on bail for sentencing on Friday.
McNab was struck off the New Zealand Medical Register by the Medical Council in 1996 after being found guilty of fraud relating to his practice at the medical centre.
He was sentenced to 20 months' jail in 1995 on 20 counts of fraud involving $1.3 million.
He had been convicted of making false claims for Government subsidies between July 1991 and May 1993 for patients he had not seen.
At his trial, the prosecution said McNab had been claiming $250,000 a year more than any other general practitioner in the country.
Outside the court yesterday, McNab said he had treated patients only because the clinic had been under-resourced and he felt obliged to help during staff shortages.
"We didn't have a nurse there, [and] the doctor was away on temporary leave. All I did was make sure that things got done."
He said he stopped as soon as a nurse began to work at the clinic.
Crown prosecutor Mark Sturm said that despite withdrawing 28 charges for similar offences, he was satisfied with six convictions.
The Ministry of Health enforcement officer, Steve Anthony, said McNab's guilty pleas to the latest charges were a pleasant surprise after two years of trying to gain convictions.
"This is a great result for nearly two years of work for us.
"We'll wait to see what the sentence is, but this is the result we were after."
Mr Anthony said the convictions had been such a long time coming because there had been difficulties establishing McNab's role at the medical centre.
Struck-off GP admits treating patients
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