Doctor guilty of fraud faces more charges

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An Auckland doctor who admitted defrauding taxpayers of more than $180,000 has been suspended for a year.

The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal has also ordered Hong Sheng Kong to pay tribunal and prosecution costs of more than $12,000.

The tribunal recommended the Medical Council review Kong's competence, and ordered that he not have any financial interest in any practice in which he was employed.

Kong, a Panmure GP, pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court to 16 charges of fraudulently claiming taxpayer funding of $183,134. He has repaid that sum.

Kong dishonestly inflated his clinic's patient register, on which state medical subsidies were calculated.

He was sentenced last year by the court to 400 hours' community service and a year's home detention, although he was later permitted to go to work.

He admitted to the tribunal that his court conviction on 16 fraud charges reflected adversely on his fitness to practise medicine, and this was the basis for its disciplining him.

Kong faces two other court actions.

The health board has started civil action in the High Court to recover more than $1 million from him. When the case began, Kong pleaded not guilty to 21 charges relating to $1.3 million.

He had also pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstructing the course of justice, which relates to his allegedly altering a clinic file. The Health and Disability Commissioner is said to have cleared Kong over a cancer case complaint after relying on the file.

Kong was discharged on that charge, but the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial, which is scheduled to start next August.