Pharmacist jailed over $19-million PBS fraud

Sydney-based Hamza Zoghbi used some of the funds to buy a house, designer brands and take a $250,000 family holiday

A former Sydney pharmacist who mimicked doctors’ handwriting to defraud the PBS of $19 million to spend on a multi-million-dollar home, an overseas holiday and designer brands, has been jailed for six years.

Hamza Zoghbi and his business partner Jacob Youssef raked in most of the money through false claims for expensive medication formulas prescribed for rare metabolic disorders, according to the District Court of NSW.