Doctor guilty of misconduct

A doctor who brought an old, broken lap-top to a shop, claiming it to be recently-purchased and fraudulently obtaining a refund for it, has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

Dr Alabi Emmanuel Gbadebo, originally from Nigeria, was before a Medical Council fitness to practice inquiry today. He was also found to have concealed his pending trial for the fraud, from the HSE in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, and to have failed to notify the HSE, after the trial, that he had been convicted.

The inquiry heard the Dr Gbadebo, who had trained and worked in Belarus, had been in Ireland since 2003. He passed Irish medical examinations and general medical council equivalents. Though he had had some observer posts, he had not got paid work when he was living in Cork in 2008. He was finishing a thesis for a Masters, was under financial pressure and anxious to get work.

He said he had been having difficulty with his lap-top. “I had to submit the thesis. The best thing was to change the lap-top.”

He bought a new lap-top in a Cork city-centre branch of Argos for €599.99 in late August 2008. On 29th August he brought his old lap-top, in the new lap-top’s packaging, to the Blackpool branch of Argos with the receipt and obtained a ’refund’ for it.

“I was thinking I had to get the thesis done. I was frustrated. I was five years in the country and no work.” He has a wife and three children. He obtained a distinction in his Masters and obtained work in Mayo general hospital in Castlebar in 2009.

Garda Michelle Quinn, Watercourse Road, Cork, said she had viewed CCTV footage of Dr Gbadebo fraudulently obtaining the ’refund’. She sent a report to Castlebar gardaí in February 2010 and the case came before Cork District Court on 23rd July 2010. Dr Gbadebo pleaded guilty on 28th September 2010 and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for two years.

In the meantime Dr Gbadebo had been contracted to work in Letterkenny General Hospital.

Patrick Murray, HR manager there, said he gave the doctor a number of declaration forms on 20th August 2010 advising they should be signed in the presence of a solicitor.

Among the declarations he signed was one that he faced no Garda investigation or pending trial.

“On 5th October I got a call from the local Garda station. I was told Dr Alabi was convicted of an offence in Cork at the end of September,” said Mr Murray. He called Dr Alabi to a meeting on 12th October. “He admitted it and apologised profusely and sought leniency.”

His contract was terminated however, due to the “significant breach of trust”. There had been no concerns about Dr Gbadebo’s clinical work.

He has not worked since.

The doctor told the inquiry he had not read the declarations. “I was so pleased to have work. I said ’Let me sign’.”

He regretted not telling the HSE about the pending trial.

The committee found three allegations were “proven as to fact” and each amounted to professional misconduct. The Council will determine the appropriate sanction or sanctions.