Fake doctor gets suspended sentence

A medical school drop-out who forged a graduation certificate when his businbessman father cut off his allowance has been convicted of fraud after he was given a job as an examination board head by the Austrian Red Cross.

The 34-year-old Marc Baier said that he had never intended to make use of fake degrees, but that his father had been so proud of his doctor son that he had told everybody about his achievement – and that when the local Red Cross had heard about it they had offered him a job as chairman of the examinations commission for emergency doctors.

The Red Cross which apologised for not checking the man’s medical credentials properly said however that he had passed the tests they had set in order to get a job and they did not believe that anyone had suffered as a result from the fake doctor – who admitted he had studied to continue holding his position by reading up on the Internet.

He told the court that he had been put under enormous pressure by his father to be a success and when he could not finish his studies he had decided to lie and produced a fake certificate.

He was given a three-month suspended sentence.

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