A pharmacist faked having cancer to steal more than £500,000 from a friend to pay for his gambling addiction.
Peter Saad lied to a church-going friend that he had ‘serious if not terminal’ testicular cancer to trick him into paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund non-existent private treatment.
The 33-year-old even produced faked cancer documents including MRI scans, reports, and consultant communications in what was branded a ‘heinous’ ruse.
Abusing his status as a respected pharmacist, Saad swindled a total of £534,005 from the friend, named as Person A in court, between 2018 and 2019.
He was eventually found out and admitted he had a gambling problem and that all the money was being used to pay off his debts.
Now, the Nottingham-based pharmacist has been struck off the General Pharmaceutical Council [GPC] register following a tribunal.
‘It is difficult to imagine a more heinous fraud than one predicated on feigning a cancer diagnosis’, a GPC panel ruled.
The tribunal heard Saad concocted a web of lies to the unnamed friend, who he knew through his church.
First, Saad said he had bought a pharmacy in the US which was ‘seized by the Government because of issues with his visa’.
He told his pal he needed money to pay off his mortgage and the kind friend gave him around £288,200.
But this was not enough for Sadd to pay off his gambling debts, so he sunk to another low and told his friend he had been diagnosed with cancer.
As a result, Person A gave Saad another £127,150.
Saad’s tactics changed after this and he tricked his mate into investing £121,339 in a ‘pharmaceutical warehouse business’ with him.
In total, Saad lied his way into a whopping £534,005.
The friend eventually found out about the ‘heinous’ con when Saad’s dad called to expose his son as a gambling addict who was stealing.
Saad was last year jailed for 21 months, after admitting fraud by false representation to Chester Crown Court.
Now, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC) has struck Saad off its register.
Saad begged not to be struck off, arguing that he ‘was in the grip of a gambling addiction which effectively took over his life’ at the time of his crimes.
He said he had since received treatment for the addiction and recovered from it.
Nevertheless, the panel concluded: ‘Saad’s behaviour in obtaining the advances under all three allegations was of the worst possible kind.
‘The conduct was a planned in advance, with some complexity, and was designed to completely deceive Person A.
‘He had used his position as a qualified pharmacist to raise funds from Person A and Company A.’
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