Dentist's alleged false notes rip-off
The Ministry of Health is auditing a number of dentists after an Auckland dental surgeon was caught allegedly doctoring medical notes to rip off the taxpayer.
Sanjay Govind Sathe, 59, appeared in the Manukau District Court last week, facing 19 charges of dishonest use of a document and 30 charges of false accounting after four years of alleged offending involving $ 168,030.
It is alleged he claimed taxpayer money for after-hours emergency treatment of children and teenagers - including tooth extraction - which never took place, the New Zealand Herald reports.
He had been contracted by Counties Manukau District Health Board to provide the treatment for under-18s, as part of a free scheme involving 734 dental providers, who treated about 188,000 adolescents last year at a cost of $ 42 million to the taxpayer.
Sathe allegedly submitted hundreds of emergency consultation claims each year from 2007 to 2011 for working after 5pm - the most claims of any dentist in the country.
He was caught after another dentist noticed one of his former patients had had fewer teeth extracted than their clinical notes stated.
Parents of other patients told Ministry of Health investigators the work Sathe had claimed for had never taken place.
The ministry is now auditing at least 20 other dentists, following a request from district health boards.
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