Bogus doctor has town in tizz

2004-02-01 12:49

Inge Kuhne

Johannesburg - A swindler posing as a gynaecologist has fooled patients in private hospitals in the Vaal Triangle, bought a house of R1.4m and had the family of an attractive 22-year-old redhead in a tizz for a week.

And once the unemployed Juan Pretorius, 22, was caught, he still insisted on examining a sick man in front of the police station.

After posing as a " specialist" in Vanderbiljpark, Pretorius is being treated for manic depression in his parents' home in Sasolburg.

But a number of people will remember him for some time to come.

He told Daleen Liebenberg that he had just qualified as a gynaecologist and was doing his hospital year in Boipatong. He told her his parents were important specialists in Bloemfontein.

He persuaded the family to provide him with a place to stay and to take him to hospitals in the city for "emergencies".

"Personal tragedies"

They helped him cope with a number of personal tragedies: a friend had written off the car he had borrowed, several of his patients had died, another friend had overdosed and his brother had died in a car accident.

Meanwhile he took Daleen on his rounds, bought a house next to the Vaal River and organised renovations of R350 000 to the new home.

His telephone rang incessantly and he said he received call from his parents, colleagues wanting his opinion, even a professor who congratulated him on his results.

He introduced Daleen to acquaintances, who called him "doctor".

The nursing sisters even lent him a stethoscope.

When Pretorius disappeared for a week, Daleen, the builder Jannie Vermaak and the estate agent Ronnie Engelbrecht started investigating. Within an hour they determined that he had provided them with a false ID.

They confronted him and he eventually admitted everything. Police were called, but no charges was laid.

Hospitals in the Vaal Triangle were warned to be on the lookout for Pretorius, but it seemed as if he did nothing more than visit.

- Rapport