Doctor Arrested for Issuing False Medical Certificates

Hungary Today 2022.04.29.

A doctor who for years issued false medical certificates for money has been arrested, the Pest County Police Headquarters stated on Thursday on police.hu.

Between 2017 and 2020, the 63-year-old woman issued a false medical report to one of her clients at least five times, in exchange for 200,000 forints at a time – without any real symptoms – which did not require her to go to a penitentiary. In addition, the same man paid her HUF 500,000 (more than 1,300 euros) for medical certificates issued in support of deferment applications to a court.

There was also a man who was paid hundreds of thousands of forints for a mobile phone and 200,000 forints (530 euros) for a certificate to avoid attending his court hearing.

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Those requesting false medical certificates approached the doctor’s 51-year-old colleague beforehand, who asked questions to assess the general condition and any underlying diseases, as their absence had inflated the price. The man “priced” the patients and then arranged the appointments, for which he received 5-20,000 forints (13-53 euros) per appointment.

Fact

The doctor had already been questioned as a suspect for accepting bribes in the summer of 2021, and had been under investigation for months, which proved the commercial nature of the crime. According to the information of the Pest County Economic Protection Investigators, the doctor and her partner’s activities may have started years before 2017, so the number of cases may increase in the future, and the amount of illegal income may be tens of millions of forints.

The woman was arrested on Tuesday when police officers and forensic technicians conducted searches at one of her addresses in the capital and two in Pest County. At the doctor’s home in the capital, the police seized data media, telecommunication devices, documents, bank records, patient records, and two cars, while at her partner’s home they seized money, phones, data media, and HUF 5.4 million (14,300 euros).

The economic protection department of the Pest County Police Headquarters is prosecuting the doctor on suspicion of accepting bribes on business grounds and has initiated his arrest, which the prosecution agreed with, the statement said.

Source: Magyar Hang, Police.hu

Featured image: The doctor suspected of accepting bribes is arrested by police in Budapest on April 26, 2022. Photo by Zoltán Mihádák/MTI