Health Watchdog Labels Hunter Cancer Con Man... A Liar And A Fraud

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday May 17, 2006

GREG RAY

CANCER con man Paul Perrett

may face criminal charges, following

an investigation by the

NSW Health Care Complaints

Commission (HCCC).

The commission says it has

found sufficient evidence to show

Mr Perrett obtained for himself

a financial advantage by making

statements "he knew to be false

or misleading or were made with

reckless disregard".

Continued Page 4

"Mr Perrett advised (people) against undertaking conventional cancer

treatments ... and by doing so placed these clients at serious risk of harm"

HEALTH CARE

COMPLAINTS

COMMISSION

'HE MUST BE

STOPPED':

VICTIM TELLS

REPORTS

PAGES 4,5

Liar and fraud, watchdog says

From Page 1

A brief containing this evidence is to be handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

If he is charged and convicted under 178BB of the Crimes Act, as the commission suggests, Perrett could face his third term in prison.

The Herald has reported that Perrett, a twice convicted fraud and robber, charged sick and dying people thousands of dollars for alleged treatments administered over more than a decade.

As well as selling pills and powders he claimed to have imported from China and elsewhere, Perrett is alleged to have put clients on intravenous drips of peroxide and urine.

Perrett told his clients he was a biochemist and forensic pathologist, a Vietnam War veteran and a university academic with a variety of qualifications including a PhD from Cambridge.

He did not tell them he had been sentenced to jail in 1982 for frauds he committed while pretending to be an engineer.

Nor that he had been sentenced to jail in 1987 for a payroll robbery he committed while on parole for the fraud and pretending to be a tax officer.

Dozens of victims of Perrett's health scam complained in the pages of The Herald and the commission interviewed many of these people.

HCCC commissioner Kieran Pehm has written to Marilyn Christie, one of the first complainants to The Herald, that the commission's inquiry has been completed.

The inquiry has concluded that:

1. Perrett lied to several clients about his qualifications and experience, falsely claiming to be employed at John Hunter Hospital and being affiliated with the University of Newcastle.

2. Perrett contravened skin penetration provisions of public health regulations by administering intravenous therapy without authority at his Rutherford clinic.

3. He put the lives of several people at serious risk of harm by advising them against undertaking conventional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, X-rays and CT scans.

4. He deliberately misrepresented his therapeutic products to his clients and their relatives in order to obtain for himself a financial advantage in that he claimed these products were imported by him, but they are not listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.

5. Perrett sold large quantities of unlisted products. These had no recognised generic or trade names. The provision of the material is evidence that he is in breach of the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act.

6. The pills and powders he sold were not labelled in accordance with clause 142 of the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Regulation 2002.

The commission would make no public comment on its findings yesterday.

NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said he welcomed the completion of the investigation.

"I hope this provides some comfort to the complainants," Mr Hatzistergos said.

Perrett, who has left the Ashtonfield house he had rented and now lives in Katoomba, hung up hurriedly when contacted by The Herald for comment yesterday.

'Eight months after this

newspaper revealed

in detail the audacious

scope of Perrett?s

scams, all the HCCC

can do is write to the

con man, explaining

where he went wrong.'

EDITORIAL, PAGE 8

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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