More charges laid against 'fraud' psychiatrist

Mohamed Shakeel Siddiqui appearing in the Waikato District Court in Hamilton via audio visual link. Photo / David Kerr

An alleged fake Waikato District Health Board psychiatrist has been further remanded on new charges after vowing to prove his innocence.

Mohamed Shakeel Siddiqui originally only faced one charge of obtaining his job at the DHB by deception when he first appeared in court in July.

At his last appearance in the Hamilton District Court last month, six further charges were laid, including two of producing and using a forged document.

The new charge relates to his Neurology PHD, which Siddiqui claims he obtained from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 2011.

Police now claim the document is fraudulent and that he used it to get his job at the DHB between August 12, 2014 and January 22, 2015.

The other fraud charge alleges Siddiqui passed off an immigration document, namely a New Zealand Work Visa, knowing it to be obtained fraudulently.

In total he now faces five obtaining by deception charges, which also relate to work visa, his NZ Medical Council Provisional Vocational Licence in the field of psychiatry between September 9, 2014 and May 22, 2015, and his salary and expenses from his job at the DHB between January 19, 2015 and July 14, 2015.

Siddiqui's lawyer Kerry Burroughs successfully argued for the remand without plea on all charges after stating that he is able to prove he is a "qualified psychiatrist with sufficient expertise to meet the requirements of the New Zealand Medical Council".

Siddiqui will reappear in court on November 23.