Story By: Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

A Catch Me If You Can fraudster has been charged in Romania after he was exposed using faked documents to pose as a world-renowned British plastic surgeon and perform operations, without anyone noticing.

But in reality he had not even graduated from high school and was eventually caught when nurses noticed he did not even know how to put his surgical gloves on.

Italian national Matteo Politi was reportedly convicted of identity theft in his home country in 2011 before allegedly moving to Romania, where he posed as a British plastic surgeon named Matthew Mode, despite having no medical background.

Politi even created a social media page for Mode where he posted photos and videos of himself performing operations, according to reports.

One year after it was first discovered he was allegedly posing as a surgeon he has now been asked to appear in court after criminal cases were launched under nine articles of the Romanian Criminal Code.

According to the District Court Prosecutor’s Office press service: “Officers of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Sector 1 of the Court of Bucharest have ordered the prosecution of a defendant, a foreign citizen, for committing the crime of exercising illegally a profession or activity in a continuous form.”

Romanian newspaper Libertatea reported Polti used forged documents and created a CV which said he had studied at the UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Hospital and the prestigious Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in United States.

Politi also claimed he had worked as a plastic surgeon in the UK, Italy and Spain despite the fact that in reality he had not even graduated from high school, according to reports.

Libertatea reported Politi, posing as Mode, was able to perform operations at four private hospitals in the Romanian capital Bucharest, named as Euromedical, Prestige, MH Medical Group, and Monza, before being caught out. He is said to have carried out the first operation in March 2018.

Local media report Politi’s fake CV even convinced a centre for trainee plastic surgeons in the Italian city of Verona to allow him to give lectures.

The Italian is said to have managed to get approval from the Public Health Direction (DSP) in Bucharest using a fake diploma from the Faculty of Medicine in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

Politi is said to have convinced the authorities to allow him to perform operations using the DSP approval despite him also legally requiring approval from the Doctors’ College (CMR) to do so.

Libertatea reported that the Italian told hospital authorities he would provide his CMR approval soon and they had allowed him to work in the meantime.

Reports state Politi aroused suspicion when nurses spotted that he was struggling to put his medical gloves on and he failed to wash his hands correctly before an operation.

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