Consultant and wife guilty of e730,000 cancer claim fraud

A CONSULTANT surgeon and his wife have been found guilty of defrauding over e730,000 from insurance companies through a false breast cancer claim in a case that was described as having “overwhelming” evidence.

Dr Emad Massoud (52) and his wife Gehan Massoud (45), a nurse, of Woodview, Brownstown, Ratoath, were convicted by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Monday.

Judge Patrick McCartan remanded Emad Massoud in custody and his wife on continuing bail for sentence in March.

The jury's verdict came after a 15-day trial during which they had pleaded not guilty to intent to defraud the insurance companies by falsely pretending that Mrs Massoud had suffered breast cancer and that there was an obligation on them to settle serious illness claims.

The Massouds were found guilty of defrauding e685,658 from Scottish Provident Ltd on 25th March 2002 through having that amount made payable to Permanent TSB, and e45,338 on 22nd February 2002 from Lifetime Assurance Company Ltd by having that sum transferred to their account at the Bank of Ireland in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

The jury of seven men and four women deliberated for two hours on Monday to return the guilty verdicts. The couple have four children and have dual Irish and Egyptian citizenship.

Dr Massoud had been working as a consultant surgeon with both the Wellman Clinic and the Nobel Clinic, which operate out of the same building in Eccles Street near Dublin city centre.

Judge McCartan commended Detective-Sergeant Declan Daly, who led the investigation, and his Garda colleagues on the way they compiled, presented and prepared the evidence, which he described as “frankly overwhelming”.

Said Judge McCartan: “Certainly, the work put in by the prosecution has greatly assisted justice being done.”

Det-Sgt Daly told the court he was concerned that Dr Massoud would leave the country before sentencing if he was allowed to remain on bail

 He said that there were still civil proceedings in the High Court against the Massouds in which Scottish Provident and Lifetime Assurance are looking for the e730,996 to be paid back. If the case is successful, the Massouds will have to sell their own remaining asset, their family home, which has been valued at e750,000.

Judge McCartan said he believed the Garda concerns to be well-founded in view of the “high mobility” of Dr Massoud's profession and his “considerable interests” abroad, particularly in Romania, and the fact that he has travelled extensively.

Mr Dominic McGinn, BL, prosecuting, told the jury in closing the case that the “ultimate issue” for it to decide was whether Mrs Massoud had breast cancer as she claimed.

He suggested that the only surgery that had taken place on Mrs Massoud was the one that created a scar on her left breast and added that “given the stakes were e700,000, she may have been willing to undergo the pain of making such a mark”.

Mr McGinn asked the jury to consider DNA evidence that concluded that a tissue sample provided to the Mater Hospital in Mrs Massoud's name for diagnosis could not have come from her but there was a 99.53 per cent chance it came from her mother.

Dr Massoud admitted through his counsel, Mr John Peart, SC (with Mr Charles Corcoran, BL), on the first day of the trial, that it was he who had removed 237 grams of tissue, including a tumour, from his wife's breast, rather than a colleague, Doctor Mohamed Hilal, as stated in the insurance claim forms.

This amount of tissue was later described by prosecution witness, Professor Michael Kerin, a breast cancer surgeon who has dealt with 150 such operations a year, as equating to half the average-sized breast.

Dr Massoud claimed that he discovered two weeks later that his mother-in-law had a lumpectomy on her left breast the day after his wife discovered the lump on her left breast.

He told Mr Peart that his wife “was in a panic” after discovering the lump on her breast so he chose not “to follow standard medical protocol” of having a mammogram and biopsy before a lumpectomy and operated on his wife a week and a half later in his clinic on an examination table while she was under local anaesthetic.

Dr Mohamed Elsayed Attia, who claimed to be a friend and colleague of the Massouds, said he saw a jar of human tissue in their home a short time after he learned that Gehan's mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

He said he later spoke to a man who worked with the Massouds who described bringing something in a jar from Egypt to Ireland after being requested to do so by Dr Massoud.

Dr Maureen Smith, a DNA expert with the Department of Justice, told Mr McGinn during the trial that a DNA profile taken from a sample of Mrs Massoud's blood did not match that of a tissue sample provided to the Mater Hospital for diagnosis. She also said that there was a 99.53 per cent chance that the tissue donor was Mrs Massoud's mother.

Professor Michael Kerin, a breast cancer surgeon, said that a mammogram taken of Mrs Massoud's left breast a month after the alleged surgery showed no signs of any surgery or tissue being removed.