An Italian man who posed as an internationally renowned British plastic surgeon is to face trial in Romania for pretending to be a doctor and operating on 28 patients without a license, authorities said Monday.
Matteo Politi, 39, who also went by the alias Mathew Mode, allegedly carried out breast implants, lip augmentations and other surgery and gave lectures to trainees despite having no medical background whatsoever.
Prosecutors said from March to December 2018, he operated on 19 patients at a clinic where he worked in Bucharest.
He also operated on another nine women elsewhere and received sums between 13,880 lei (1 euro=4.7788 lei) and 10,150 euros.
He is separately accused of convincing officials from the Bucharest Health Department and the education ministry of recognizing his fake diploma. No date was set for the trial.
Politi, who is Italian, was arrested when the story broke in February 2019 as he tried to flee Romania by train. He was released but was banned from leaving the country.
He performed surgeries at four private clinics in wealthy parts of the capital Bucharest, authorities saud.
Using the alias Matthew Mode, he created a social media profile where he posted videos of operations he had performed. Italian media reported that Politi was spared jail in 2011 for a similar fraud.
Plastic surgeon Adina Alberts raised concerns about Politi’s credentials after he appeared not to follow the proper procedures for washing his hands prior to surgery and did not seem to hold a syringe correctly.
Alberts said he initially fooled her: “He was brilliant at talking,” she said. But she had doubts after seeing the way he held a syringe. She said one patient suffered “complications” after breast implant surgery.
Romanian health authorities announced that Politi was issued with a doctor’s permit in March last year after submitting a forged diploma claiming he qualified as one in Kosovo.
Politi also submitted a fake CV stating he studied at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States, which confirmed to the New York Times that it had no record of students named Matteo Politi or Matthew Mode.
He also lied about having previously worked as a plastic surgeon in the UK, Italy and Spain despite never having finished secondary school.
Romanian health authorities said they issued him a permit in March 2018 after submitting a fake diploma claiming he’d qualified as a doctor in Kosovo.
In June last year, he said he wanted to establish a private clinic in Bucharest offering plastic surgery to patients. He said he would initially manage the clinic “while I sort out my studies.”
