ADVICE ON OPERATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 109, 10 May 1928, Page 9

ADVICE ON OPERATIONS.

BOGUS DOCTOR IN SYDNEY. "PUT IT OVER" MEDICAL. MEN IMPOSTER WAS DRUG ADDICT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY. May 4. It is not only in fiction that almost unbelievable incidents occur. Facts concerning the operations of an imposter. who was arrested in Sydney this week, illustrate that point. He commenced his imposition about two months ago when he visited one of the city's leading dentists to have his teeth attended. In the course of several visits lie let drop the fact that he was the senior medical officer at New Guinea, and to questions of the dentist gave replies which indicated his knowledge of other men in that area, particularly medical men who were close personal friends of the dentist. He exhibited, too, a certain knowledge of medicine, and impressed the dentist as being undoubtedly a medical man. So much so that, when the imposter said that he was unknown in Sydney, and wanted someone to guarantee an account with a city bank, the dentist took him to his own bank, and put in a guarantee for £100. He did more. The "doctor" developed an internal complaint for which an operation was necessary, and the dentist recommended him to a private hospital in the suburbs, where he was treated as a .medical man. After the operation, other doctors invited him into the operating theatre when they were conducting operations on other inmates of the hospitals, and he had the temerity, on some occasions, to proffer hig" advice as to the best method of doing the job. He recovered, did not pay his dues; but revisited the dentist, and with the latter's £100 guarantee behind him, entertained the dentist's secretary, and so impressed her that she listened to his protestations of love. They had arranged to marry, and he had informed her that she would go back to NewGuinea with him and take her place as one of the leaders of society there, when the Police Drug Bureau stepped into the picture and arrested him. At that time the girl, who was head over heels in love with the villain, had prepared her trousseau, and made all other preparations for her marriage. He was eventually taken before the Court, and fined £150 for breaches of the Medical Pra" i: tioners Act, and £10 or six months 111 r the Drug Act. Detectives explained to the Court that the accused, Henry Binstead. who was at one time a resident of Auckland, had been a drug addict for years, and was liable to pose as anything so long as he could get supplies of the drugs he craved. Meanwhile the girl laments while he languishes in gaol.