Fake Italian doctor Matteo Politi was apprehended on a train to Hungary at the Kürtös/Curtici border crossing attempting to flee Romania, independent news agency Mediafax reported. He will be taken to the 4th precinct police in the capital, Bucharest for questioning.
Politi, posing as a surgeon has conned his way into several Romanian hospitals and even performed surgeries, news channel Digi24 reports. He introduced himself as Matthew Mode (his real name is Matteo Politi) and claimed to be a graduate of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In reality, he only graduated from the eighth grade in Italy and his last legitimate job was as a parking valet.
Foreign doctors are only allowed to practice in Romania with the joint approval of the Romanian Medical College (CMR) and the Health Ministry. Politi duped a hospital into employing him by saying that the already had the ministry’s approval and was waiting for the CMR one. The fraud was discovered when during one of his surgeries the other doctors noticed that he couldn’t even put on surgical gloves in a professional manner.
Politi has already been sentenced to one and a half years in Italy for a similar offense.
