Bogus doctor who practiced in Pinner faces jail

Antonio Gobbato, a Portuguese national, was convicted at the Inner Crown Court yesterday for calling himself a gynaecologist and psychiatrist, despite having no qualifications.

The Brazilian-born fraudster also claimed to have qualified in Portugal in homeopathy, iridology, acupuncture and herbal medicines.

Gobbato, 51, set up his ten-month con at a home in Pinner, before moving to Whitechapel, Kilburn, and Stockwell, where he was arrested on June 4.

He sexually assaulted four women under the guise of medical examinations, as well as conning a woman into taking him on holiday to Italy, claiming he could cure her husband’s alcoholism.

The con artist also cruelly told one man his daughter had an infection that could turn into leukaemia if left untreated.

An investigation was launched last year after women complained to the General Medical Council and discovered the trickster, who dressed in a white coat and wore a stethoscope round his neck, was not a registered doctor.

He was convicted of four counts of sexual assault, two counts of attempted fraud and one count of fraud. He is due to be sentenced on July 13.