Sabbirahmed Bhikha Groped Woman Whlst Posing as a Doctor

From The Daily Mail:

A bogus doctor who massaged a woman's breasts after she complained of back pain was jailed for two years today.

Sabbirahmed Bhikha, 58, groped his patient for several minutes and touched her chest 'like a boyfriend would', the Old Bailey heard.

Bhikha advertised himself on business cards as Dr Sabbirahmed Bhikha MBST and charged £30 per session, running surgeries from his east London home.

But his only training was as a lathe operator in his home country of India. Bhikha later told jurors his skills at back massage were 'a gift from god.'

Judge Paul Worsley QC said: 'You were a respected member of your society. You have now been exposed as a charlatan. You have brought shame on your family and upon your family's healing tradition.

'If you were in fact a qualified doctor you would have been struck off. You are not a doctor and it therefore falls to the courts to control your activities and punish you.'

Bhikha, from Walthamstow, east London, was convicted of sexual assault and two counts of fraud by false representation.

He was jailed for 15 months for the sexual assault and given nine months to serve consecutively for fraud, making a total of two years.

A probation report written for the sentencing hearing said Bhikha pretended to be a GP 'for the purposes of sexual gratification and personal gain'.

Prosecutor Hugh Forgan told the court: 'This was a deliberate misrepresentation in order to get paid for services.

'The General Medical Council have been asked if they have any record of him. They do not. He has never registered with them.'

The victim, an Asian woman in her 30s, first visited his home in November, 2007, after being given a recommendation by her aunt and later returned for further treatment.

Mr Forgan said: 'He told her to strip to her underwear and lie on her back. He removed her bra, massaging at length each of her breasts.

'The touching could have had no conceivable medical purpose. It was simply an assault. The effect on her was obvious. She was angry and didn't pay any money.

'She complained to the police.' To put his patient at ease, he told her: 'I'm a doctor, I do this day in and day out.'

The court heard Bhikha also conned a male Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) who visited him for treatment for back pain.

Defence barrister Thomas Nicholson-Pratt described the offences as a 'lapse of judgement'.

The judge told Bhikha: 'Sadly you have used your status in the community as a well respected masseur to cause you to hold yourself as a doctor.'

'Those who pose in our community as medically qualified professionals must be exposed and punished.

'I take the view that a particularly serious aspect of your posing as a doctor was that the woman was encouraged to come back to you for further treatment.

'Trusting you she removed her bra and allowed you to massage her breasts was something she would never have done had she known you were not a doctor.

'She is still clearly mortified by the experience. You have shown no remorse and no apology.'

On his arrest, police found 45 tablets of diazepam as well as the hallucinogenic aphrodisiac Butofenine in a medical cabinet.

But Bhikha was cleared of possession of the drugs after claiming they belonged to his son.

Bearded and bespectacled, he showed little emotion as he was jailed and the sentence relayed to him by a Gudjurati interpreter.

Bhikha had been cleared of a further count of sexual assault after it was alleged he groped the woman's bottom and rubbed oil on it.