The fake paramedic was exposed by a single detail on the uniform she was wearing. Photo / NCA Newswire - Gaye Gerard
The fake paramedic was exposed by a single detail on the uniform she was wearing. Photo / NCA Newswire - Gaye Gerard
Paramedics wear name tags to reassure people a medical professional is there to help with their emergency.
But that missing detail on an otherwise convincing NSW Ambulance uniform was the undoing of an impostor who had never worked in the industry.
Zahraa Abbas Nemeh faced Sydney’s Fairfield Local Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to 26 charges, including several counts of impersonating an emergency services worker.
Agreed facts outline a bizarre two-month crime spree in which the 32-year-old repeatedly wore a NSW Ambulance uniform belonging to a former friend, obtained prescription pain medication in their name and even tried to assist real paramedics in an emergency.
Facts tendered to court revealed Nemeh attended Greenway Plaza in Wetherill Park on several occasions between September and November 2022 while dressed in the paramedic’s uniform.
The first time CCTV captured her impersonating an ambulance worker was when she reversed a Mercedes into a truck and was seen arguing with the driver.
A few weeks later, staff at the shopping centre allowed Nemeh to look at the CCTV footage of the accident, under the understanding that she was an emergency service worker.
In a concerning incident on October 26, Nemeh tried to help real paramedics attend to a patient.
She approached two paramedics who were wheeling a man into an ambulance at Greenway Plaza and asked if she could help, but they refused. She tried again to assist, explaining she was a paramedic, before finally accepting their refusal and leaving.
According to the agreed facts, the paramedics became suspicious because Nemeh was not wearing a nametag and reported the incident.
And so began the unravelling of Nemeh’s fake identity.
Nemeh was due to be sentenced at Fairfield Local Court. Photo / news.com.au - Ian Svegovic
In another blow, Nemeh made a doctor’s appointment in her former friend and real paramedic’s name to obtain pain medication. Police allege she used a photo of her friend’s Medicare card to do so.
It was not the first time Nemeh had done this, according to the facts.
But this time, the doctor became alarmed when Nemeh did not recognise the names of certain medications despite wearing a paramedic’s uniform.
Upon seeing her real Medicare card, the doctor looked her up on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and discovered she had never been a paramedic.
Nemeh’s crime spree culminated in a desperate attempt to get more pain medication by faking a break in to her home.
According to the agreed facts, Nemeh contacted police on the morning of November 10 to say her friend left her medication at her house the night before, and someone else she knew had broken in and stolen it.
She claimed she needed a report number to get replacement prescription, even filling out a four-page police report about the crime which police soon discovered did not happen.
Police arrested Nemeh on November 17 and she has been in custody since.
Her lawyer, James Clements, told the court there was a clear reason for Nemeh’s offending, which was a reliance on opiod medication following a serious back injury.
Nemeh’s sentencing for 26 charges, including impersonating an emergency services worker, deception, providing false information during a police investigation and multiple licence offences, was set for Wednesday.
But Magistrate James Gibson adjourned it until February 22 so a sentence assessment report could be completed.
On that date, Nemeh will also enter pleas to separate charges of negligent driving and driving with an expired licence.
According to the Health Care Complaints Commission, Nemeh “must not under any circumstances provide any health services, either in paid employment or voluntarily, to any member of the public”.
