An NHS doctor has been struck off today for faking his CV, bringing to an end his 27-year career in medicine.
Police questioned Dr Hakeem Lateef, 54, after he tried to get a job in finance just six weeks after he was suspended for lying about his involvement in a head-on car crash.
Lateef paid a bank worker £400 to attend a one day Co-op course on due diligence work then gave him a further £100 to ”edit” his CV and include referees as part of an elaborate scam.
The doctor used this CV to convince a recruitment agency he had worked as a compliance analyst for a string of financial organisations including the National Bank of Egypt and the Nationwide banks.
But Lateef, who has worked in orthopaedics and trauma, ENT, general surgery and urology at hospitals across the UK, was discovered to be making false claims about his experience.
A special Co-op investigator carrying out an internal probe found two copies of Lateef’s CV on the worker’s computer hard drive – one showing the doctor’s medical experience and the second with the faked entries, and the police were called.
Lateef denied wrongdoing claimed his PC had been ”hacked.”
No criminal action was taken against him for attempting to obtain a pecuniary advantage by deception, but he was referred to the General Medical Council.
Lateef, from Toxteth, Liverpool, who has most recently been working in drug and alcohol detox services was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and dishonesty, at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal service, in Manchester.
The hearing was told how in March 2018 Lateef who previously worked as a police and military forensic medical examiner had been suspended by the MPTS for six months when he was found guilty of falsely understating a woman’s injuries when he was convicted of dangerous driving at a court hearing in 2016.
The following month he paid the bank worker, known as Mr A, £400 to attend a one-day course titled, ‘Intensive and practical Know Your Customer, Customer Due Diligence training.’
The following day Lateef emailed a copy of his CV and asked Mr A to “write” or “edit” it, adding, “Thank you for wonderful lectures of yesterday. I understand someone can help us with referees. Please assist me in this area.”
He also paid him a further £100 for his services.