Doctor is jailed over cancer scam

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7292831.stm

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A doctor has been jailed for four years over a 731,000 euros fraud which saw him falsely claim his wife had cancer.

Dr Emad Massoud, 52, and wife Gehan, 45, from Ratoath, Meath, received the money from insurance companies in 2002 after claiming she had breast cancer.

Gardaí began an investigation after an insurance company received a tip-off.

Gehan Massoud was given three years for her role, but this was suspended because their young children had no-one else to care for them.

Judge Patrick McCartan, at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court, said it wasincredible such a well-educated couple risked their family and prestigiouscareers to con money from two insurance companies.

"It was done simply to feed greed. There was no compelling financial reason,"he added.

Massoud, a father-of-four originally from Egypt, performed bogus surgeryon his wife's left breast - leaving a scar - at his Wellman Clinic in centralDublin as part of the fraud.

But Judge McCartan insisted Mrs Massoud, a highly-qualified nurse, was anactive conspirator who allowed her body to be "desecrated" in a "scheme ofunbelievable deceit".

Detectives who raided the couple's home and Dr Massoud's private clinic foundevidence that tissue from Mrs Massoud's elderly mother - who had suffered breastcancer - was smuggled into Ireland in a jar to be used in the scam.

A DNA test on Mrs Massoud found that the tissue she provided for tests was nother own but had a 99.53% chance of belonging to her mother.