NHS doctor, 54, is struck off for paying bank worker £100 to fake his CV in bid to get new job in finance
- Dr Hakeem Lateef was already suspended when he tried to get new finance job
- He paid bank worker £400 to take compliance course for him and to fake his CV
- His deception was uncovered during investigation and he was referred to GMC
- Dr Lateef was struck off after tribunal found he had been deliberately dishonest
Pictured: Dr Hakeem Lateef has been struck off after paying a bank worker to falsify his CV so he could get a new job in finance
An NHS doctor’s 27 year career in medicine was in ruins today after he was struck off for faking his CV so he could get a new job in finance after being suspended from practising.
Dr Hakeem Lateef, 54, was quizzed by police after he tried to get a job in regulatory compliance and anti-money laundering just six weeks after he was suspended from medicine for lying about his involvement in a head on car crash.
During an elaborate scam, Lateef paid a bank worker £400 to attend a one day Co-op banking course on due diligence work then gave him a further £100 to ‘edit’ his CV and include referees.
Later the doctor – who has worked in orthopaedics and trauma, ENT, general surgery and urology at hospitals across the UK – posted his new CV to a recruitment agency falsely claiming he had worked as a compliance analyst for a string of financial organisations including the National Bank of Egypt and the Nationwide banks.
Police were called in when a special Co-op investigator carrying out an internal probe found two copies of Lateef’s CV on the computer hard drive of the man who had helped him – one showing the doctor’s medical experience and the second with the faked entries.
No criminal action was taken against Lateef for the offence of attempting to obtain a pecuniary advantage by deception but he was referred to the General Medical Council.
The doctor, who qualified in 1995, denied wrongdoing and claimed his PC had been ‘hacked’.
At the Medical Practitioners Tribunal service, in Manchester, 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.
The hearing was told how in March 2018, Lateef had been suspended by the MPTS when he mislead the General Medical Council about the details of a dangerous driving conviction in 2016.
Dr Lateef worked at a number of hospitals during his career including Withybush in Wales
A tribunal found he understated the injuries of a woman involved in the crash, lied on a means form when he was sentenced and told the GMC that he had his licence revoked for speeding and as a result he was suspended for six months with the tribunal noting it was an ‘isolated incident’.
The following month, the doctor paid a bank worker known as Mr A £400 to attend a one-day banking compliance 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.
Later, Lateef emailed his faked CV to Bristol-based recruitment agency Emponics which specialises in the finance industry, falsely bragging of his work in regulatory compliance and tackling money laundering.
He also fraudulently claimed to have worked for two years for the London-based specialist international bank FBN which facilitates trade between Africa and Europe. The new CV made no reference to Lateef’s medical qualifications or experience.
Lateef was later interviewed by Greater Manchester Police and accepted attending the course and paying for his original CV to be edited.
But he denied submitting the updated CV to Emponics and suggested that his computer may have been hacked.
During the interview Lateef admitted to have never worked in the financial sector. He said he had asked Mr A to ‘tidy up’ his CV only to be ‘shocked and flabbergasted’ when he received the updated version.
Lateef claimed he confronted Mr A saying: ‘Why did you leave my CV and produce something else? I’m not going to use this kind of CV not for ever’.
A tribunal found that Dr Lateef (pictured) should be struck off pending a period of appeal
He got the response: ‘They won’t employ you if you don’t show work experience in these areas.’
Dr Lateef told officers: ‘I just binned the updated CV because I thought this is ridiculous.
‘I didn’t do anything with it. I definitely deleted it and put it in the trash’.
He then claimed his computer had been hacked by a female friend who sent the CV to the recruitment agency.
But finding him guilty of misconduct, tribunal chairman Tim Bradbury said Lateef’s account was ‘inconceivable’.
He added: ‘The Tribunal did not consider it credible that someone unknown had hacked Dr Lateef’s email account and submitted a job application on his behalf without his knowledge.
‘Even if Dr Lateef had not sent the emails himself, correspondence from Emponics would have been sent to his email account, to which Dr Lateef had access. It was therefore unlikely that Dr Lateef would not have noticed the incoming emails.
‘The Tribunal noted the request for help with referees and did not understand why Dr Lateef would have thought Mr A would have been able to assist when Mr A and those that he worked with knew nothing about Dr Lateef beyond that contained in the original CV.
‘There is no evidence that he went any further in pursuing employment in the financial sector.
‘However, thereafter, he maintained an untruthful account and at no stage did he seek to withdraw the application nor inform others as to the falsity of the CV that he had submitted.
‘The Tribunal determined that, in light of his knowledge at the time at which the updated CV was sent, his actions in so doing were self-evidently dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people.’
Mr Bradbury added: ‘The Tribunal acknowledged that at the time of the events, Dr Lateef was facing extremely challenging personal circumstances. However, a factor of these circumstances related to his suspension following the finding of dishonesty by a previous tribunal.
‘He acted in a deliberately dishonest way in order to secure employment he would not otherwise have obtained, and his conduct was properly characterised as fraud. He has demonstrated that his integrity could not be relied upon.
‘Wholly fictitious information was provided within the CV which had been prepared for the purpose of obtaining a responsible position in a bank, namely regulatory compliance and anti-money laundering and an employment for which Dr Lateef was completely unqualified.
‘He has not shown any understanding or insight into the seriousness of the findings that have been made against him.’
In a statement to the hearing Lateef – who worked at Withybush Hospital in Pembrokshire, University Hospital in Cardiff, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and Peterborough and Stamford Hospital NHS Trust, between 2006 and 2017 – said: ‘I ensure that what is entrusted to me is kept in trust.
‘I have not broken the trust reposed in me by my clients and other staff. I have also made sure that nobody has access to my email address and other sensitive and work-related documents.
‘Since the incident, I have always been checking and making sure that the courses I attend are accredited by well known bodies and organisations with integrity and reputation. I also make sure that I do not send my CV to any unverified entities that lack integrity and probity.’
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