Doctor who lied about his HIV status to NHS employers given two-year suspended sentence
Tamas Nyary felt compelled to hide his sexuality due to strict conservative laws in his home country of Hungary
By Steve Brown
A doctor who lied about his HIV-positive status has been handed a two-year suspended sentence.
Tamas Nyary felt compelled to conceal his infection and sexuality from NHS employers due to the conservative views in his native Hungary, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
He worked for 24 different hospitals in the UK and performed operations on hundreds of patients but when details of his HIV status emerged, nearly 400 of his previous patients had to be tested.
Lab scientists became suspicious when he submitted his own blood under the name of a patient as part of a job application, NottinghamshireLive reported.
Judge Stuart Rafferty QC said: “Because of your embarrassment and because of the much more draconian society from which you came, revealing your homosexuality and revealing even the risk that you might be HIV-positive was a step that you simply could not contemplate taking.
“What has to be said on the other side, however, is that this was a course of dishonestly that went on for some years, beginning by you before you were certain you were HIV-positive and continued afterwards.”
According to prosecuting lawyer Rebecca Herbert, Nyary internationally hid his HIV status in order to get work, but he didn’t need to.
She said: “It is not necessarily so that someone who is HIV-positive can’t have clearance.”
Once prosecuted, Nyary also admitted a number of other offences including forgery, fraud and using a false instrument.