Doctor is jailed over cancer scam

Dr Emad Massoud has been jailed for four years

A doctor has been jailed for four years over a 731,000 euros fraud which saw him falsely claim his wife had cancer.

Dr Emad Massoud, 52, and wife Gehan, 45, from Ratoath, Meath, received the money from insurance companies in 2002 after claiming she had breast cancer.

Gardaí began an investigation after an insurance company received a tip-off.

Gehan Massoud was given three years for her role, but this was suspended because their young children had no-one else to care for them.

Judge Patrick McCartan, at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court, said it was incredible such a well-educated couple risked their family and prestigious careers to con money from two insurance companies.

"It was done simply to feed greed. There was no compelling financial reason," he added.

Massoud, a father-of-four originally from Egypt, performed bogus surgery on his wife's left breast - leaving a scar - at his Wellman Clinic in central Dublin as part of the fraud.

But Judge McCartan insisted Mrs Massoud, a highly-qualified nurse, was an active conspirator who allowed her body to be "desecrated" in a "scheme of unbelievable deceit".

Detectives who raided the couple's home and Dr Massoud's private clinic found evidence that tissue from Mrs Massoud's elderly mother - who had suffered breast cancer - was smuggled into Ireland in a jar to be used in the scam.

A DNA test on Mrs Massoud found that the tissue she provided for tests was not her own but had a 99.53% chance of belonging to her mother.