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HomeMedico-LegalAustralian former chiropractor fined for 'quackery'

Australian former chiropractor fined for 'quackery'

Zaphir
George Zaphir

A part-time cabbie has been handed a A$12,000 fine after pleading guilty to six charges of claiming to be a health practitioner in Australia. 9News reports that deregistered chiropractor George Zaphir misled terminally ill patients by claiming he could cure cancer.

Previously busted in a sting by A Current Affair, the report says the evidence obtained by reporter Dan Nolan sparked a lengthy investigation that has resulted in the fake doctor being shut down.

In A Current Affair's sting two years ago, Zaphir, a chiropractor, was recorded claiming he treated about 10 cancer patients a week for an 85% success rate. Confronted afterwards, he tried to claim he didn't treat cancer at all.

Following a lengthy investigation, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency charged him with six offences relating to recklessly passing himself off as a health practitioner. He pleaded guilty to all six charges.

The report says he already had 57 previous convictions for falsely calling himself a doctor and even writing prescriptions for drugs such as Viagra without authority, but he asked the magistrate for a suppression order on his latest offending.

[link url="https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/01/30/17/46/cabbie-who-claimed-he-could-cure-cancer-fined-12-thousand-dollars"]9News report[/link]

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