Trusted doctor jailed after scamming patients to fuel gambling addiction
He spent patients' donated money on gambling, telling them the funds were to pay for his father's cancer treatment and his own bills
A doctor has been failed for three years after defrauding 19 people, mostly his patients, out of $812,000 to fund his gambling addiction.
Dr Abraham Stephanson appeared in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges including obtaining financial advantage by deception.
The 50-year-old, who had a series of mental health disorders, told his patients the funds were to treat his father’s terminal cancer, but instead he used the money to spend on the online betting website Betfair and to pay bills.
His father was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014 and myeloma in 2017 and used his own money to pay for treatment.
